B.O.R.E.D.
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This week Daneil talks Shrek 2, Revenge of the Mummy and competition for Disney.
B.O.R.E.D
Box Office Reported Eloquently by Daniel
Why Mummies and Ogres are Good for Disney
I recently enjoyed two completely different experiences. One was a rather odd
film about a couple of ogres and their attempt to join in with society, and
the other was a hair-rasing adventure about a psychopath trying to kill you.
Now I'm sure you all know I'm talking about Dreamworks' Shrek 2, and Revenge
of the Mummy at Universal Studio Florida. While the two projects couldn't be
more different, in the end they share one major fact. They are both direct
competitive attacks at the Disney company in one way or another. Shrek 2 goes
after Disney's animation audience by spoofing and skewing the classic
fairy-tale genre. Revenge of the Mummy strikes Disney at it's theme park
branch, with a high-tech attraction designed to wow visitors like never
before. Now some fans of Disney might take a combative stance on these types
of projects. Both of them take staples Disney's brand. Shrek 2 while making
fun of formulaic fairy tales, turns out to be formulaic itself and in the end
turns out to be very similar in structure to a Disney film. Revenge of the
Mummy takes on Disney-type theming and is more than just a little reminiscent
of Indiana Jones Adventure in Disneyland park. In the end though, the "twist"
put on both of these projects is a similar one, and it's just enough a "twist"
to make them distinctively not Disney. The "twist" ends up making the
experiences harsher, more cynical, darker and more complex than what Disney
traditionally offers. Disney would never use drug-related humor in an
animated film, or have lines like "death is only the beginning" in a theme
park attraction. These two projects while featuring many Disney
characteristics end up being far enough removed from Disney that most people
wouldn't even confuse the two.
The one thing that cracks me up about Shrek is
when people talk about how novel it is. It's such an innovative project to
have adult like innuendo and modern jabs in a fairy tale like setting. Well
to me, the whole Shrek series is nothing more than a modern reincarnation of
the whole Looney Tunes concept. Much like Looney Tunes Shrek is a lot rougher
around the edges than Disney. Looney Tunes also got huge critical raves at
the same time Disney was getting blasted for "playing it too safe." Now I'm
not implying that Shrek has the quality of the classic Loony Tunes shorts.
However, Shrek is playing the same role that Looney Tunes played with Disney.
The antagonist, the competitor and the chief rival. Now in my opinion, the
Looney Tunes and competitors (like UPA) shorts also led to Disney producing
some of the most inspired animated shorts. For example, Toot Whistle Plunk
and Boom, my favorite animated short of all time, was very much inspired by
competitive animation techniques. Shrek's style, has quite possibly
influenced Disney to produce films like Chicken Little and Rapunzle:
Unbraided. Wether these films will be classic or not remains to be seen, but
if anything it's possibly gotten Disney out of it's box just a little bit.
Revenge of the Mummy, unlike Shrek 2, represents
something Disney hasn't had to face that often. For decades the theme parks
were alone in their dedication to high quality unique attractions. Recently
Universal has arisen as Disney's chief competitor theme park wise. Unlike
Shrek 2 Universal has not had amazing success, as is still quite below
Disney's numbers from a financial standpoint. From an artistic standpoint,
it's debatable whether Universal has reached Disney's level or not, but the
fact that you can debate that very thing shows that times have changed.
Disney is no longer alone, and it now has another park to push it forward.
Revenge of the Mummy, in my opinion, represents what Universal should be
doing, and quite possibly what other theme parks are going to be doing. In a
brilliant strategy move, Universal made an attraction that hits most of
Disney's strong points. Revenge of the Mummy uses a unique ride system, not
found anywhere else in the world. The attraction also utilizes a famous
entity, namely the Mummy films themselves. The attraction stresses a
high-thrill experience, something that family friendly Disney is still a
little more careful about. In the end it will remain to be seen how the
attraction helps attendance, but it's safe to say it's a fairly big hit with
guests already. Now what Revenge of the Mummy should do, in my opinion, is
help Disney get back to what Disney does best. If Universal continues to
build the impressive high thrill theming extravaganzas, then Disney should
build more attractions like Mickey's Phillharmagic and Soarin' to reclaim it's
audience. Attractions that everybody can experience and are uplifting and
captivating.
In the end I think it's great that experiences
like Shrek 2 and Revenge of the Mummy are available. If anything they push
Disney to just produce bigger and better films and theme park attractions.
Box Office
Day After Tomorrow opens this weekend and it will
be interesting to see how the film does. The trailers for the film have been
very well done, but the film has received mixed reviews. So far, this summer
season has been filled with disappointments, as big openers turned out to not
resonate with moviegoers. Shrek 2 is the big exception of course, and with
such a large opening Shrek 2 looks like the film to beat. Spiderman 2 will
have it's hands full, as Shrek 2 will skyrocket over $200 million by Monday.
The possible event to keep Shrek 2 from beating Finding Nemo at this point is
a major dropoff due to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. While that
film has been receiving good word-of-mouth, it still shouldn't be enough.
Shrek 2 could very possibly be the first animated film to smash the $400
million dollar barrier. In many ways, Shrek 2 has Van Helsing and Troy to
thank for being mediocre films.
Classic Quote of the Week: "Smile
everyone!" Basil from the Great Mouse Detective
Tragic Quote of the Week: "You. .
.you won't be back?" Pete from Pete's Dragon
4 Day Weekend Predictions
#1 - Day After Tomorrow $79 million
#2 - Shrek 2 $78 million
#3 - Raising Helen $21 million
#4 - Soul Plane $16.5 million
#5 - Troy $13.9 million
#6 - Van Helsing $6.1 million
#7 - Mean Girls $4.5 million
#8 - Man on Fire $2.2 million
#9 - Breakin' All The Rules $2 million
#10 - 13 Going on 30 $1.7 million
Last weekend accuracy: 77.19%
Summer season accuracy: 76.88%
If it was a Disney film The Day
After Tomorrow would be a controversial sequel to Annie where she has to cope
with the fact that the sun never came out.
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-- Daniel Kaplan
-- Posted May 28, 2004
