Ratatouille

[ShyViolet]

And given that most of the kids in the U.S. are headed back to school today, you can now expect this movie's numbers to fall straight through the floor) and given that there are still 17 movie-going weeks left in 2007 ... It is quite possible that -- between now and New Year's Eve -- three more movies that can gross over $200 million domestically will come along. With one of those films most likely being Walt Disney Pictures' "Enchanted."

Interesting....wonder how this will affect Walt Disney's promotion/marketing of Enchanted??

[Ben]

Another downer.

I noticed he doesn't list the Toy Story figures there at all. And at the end of the day, for a movie about a rat in a Paris restaurant released between one tentpole picture the week before and two more opening the following week - plus all the big, big films opening almost every week through the summer, mostly major franchise films at that - Rat has pulled off a minor miracle.

After all, cooking is <I>not</I> cinematic! So any chef-themed movie that can make more than Catherine Zeta Jones in a kitchen has to be a winner, right?

And Pixar ought to be pleased that Disney's spending a lot more money on promoting their movies than it does on their OWN fare like Robinsons and Enchanted...

[GeorgeC]

And Pixar ought to be pleased that Disney's spending a lot more money on promoting their movies than it does on their OWN fare like Robinsons and Enchanted...

This does not compute.

I thought the name of the production company was "Walt Disney Studios?"

Score another bit of decision-making I haven't cared for since the boy-geniuses came on-board from Pixar.

[ShyViolet]

Yes, I've seen Ratatouille stuff everywhere.....I personally think Disney marketing did a GREAT job in marketing it...particularly since it's a difficult subject to "sell"; an awesome job was done of transmitting the "unique" nature of the film (cooking, doing your best to achieve greatness) while also appealing to kiddie desires of squishy, cute 'n cuddly rats doing funny things.


Everyone I knew either heard of it or "really wanted to see it." Disney marketing is THE BEST at what they do.


**************************************************


With MTR, I actually think THAT film would have been far easier to market than Ratatouille--I mean: hip frogs in a band? Funny dinosaur with cute little hat?
Smart orphan kid who invents things and wants a family? How easy is that? But like, no one I know had heard of MTR other than one guy who WORKS IN A MOVIE THEATER.
Real shame.

(I've also mentioned Enchanted to a few people and no one knows what I'm talking about....)

Also, why aren't we seeing more Bolt stuff? Not even a teaser trailer? I know they have SOME footage already done.....even if its WIP, I still think it's definitely NOT too early to do some good ol' promotion. (Ditto Rapunzel.)


*****************************************************


I'm also sure WALL-E will do very well and all, but they have the "Cars" issue again--Robots, like Cars, aren't exactly cute 'n cuddly.

In my opinion Pixar should leave this to Disney! A robot who picks up garbage an doesn't talk? Like with Cars and Ratatouille, it takes a Disney to market a film like this. I'm sure they'll do a great job with it, but Pixar should trust them.....Disney did everything the possibly could for the Rat film.

The WALL-E teaser was good and all but I think they're going to need more than just b + W retrospectives of the Pixar gang sitting in a cafe when selling this next summer.....fans probably loved it, but 3-year-olds don't much care that about stuff like that.

[ShyViolet]

I mean, these are great images. One has a funny, slapstick look to it while the other has a warmer, more emotional feel to it.

[Josh]

With MTR, I actually THAT film would have been far easier to market than Ratatouille--I mean: hip frogs in a band? Funny dinosaur with cute little hat?
Smart orphan kid who invents things and wants a family? How easy is that? But like, no one I know had heard of MTR other than one guy who WORKS IN A MOVIE THEATER.
Real shame.

I truly believe Meet the Robinsons could have reached at least $175 million here in the US, had it been promoted better. For one thing, the film had good legs at the box office. Plus, when it comes to Robinsons, I've talked with two groups of people around where I live...

The first group is those saw the film, usually because they had little kids. They thought the movie was absolutely fantastic and the best animated feature Disney itself had released in years.

The second group I've spoken with is those who didn't see the film. Every single time I talk to someone who says that they did not see Meet the Robinsons, their reason usually involves either 'It looked like a kids film' or 'The only funny thing I saw in the commercials was the dinosaur'.

[ShyViolet]

Louis should have been a much bigger focus (in the marketing).

Kids love seeing other kids in films, animated or not, especially kids who do neat things like travel in time machines and invent stuff.

Bowler Hat Guy and Goob were great too--both of them should have been seen more, although I guess maybe they were "saving" them for the film. Doris was awesome too.

Instead all we saw was the dino, (although he was cute ) the "zany" scenes involving the Robinsons and the Caffeine Patch Lady. If you look up forums discussing the film when the previews came out, all you see is people saying how: "Ugh, that Caffeine Patch gag is so tired." Because that's practically all that was put out there.....


I mean, this is cute and all, but surely they could have come up with something better....? (and maybe not waited till less than two months before the film was about to come out)








How lame is that tagline?

[Ben]

And the images are pretty flat. Just a line up of the family? And where is Bowler Hat Guy in <I>any</I> incarnation?

Disney seem to be dropping the ball on their own films' advertising. We should be getting absolutely swamped with clever Enchanted promos from now and yet all we've got officially is a poster with a boring tag line.

[ShyViolet]

Disney almost seems "apologetic" now when hyping anything of their own. Another thing I think is very damaging to both their image and the people who actually work for them.

[Daniel]

We should be getting absolutely swamped with clever Enchanted promos from now and yet all we've got officially is a poster with a boring tag line.

Not that it changes anything, but they are giving promos on Disney Channel. Its more or less like those teasers we've seen, only shorter.

The real question is, when will they start promos on regular channels.

[Kinoo]

It's done! Rémy breaks records in France.

With 6.5 millions tickets sold, RATATOUILLE is the year's most succesful movie. The rat beats Spiderman 3, Pirates 3, Shrek 3, Transformers and all of its competitors. CongRats !

[Ben]

Our English version of Media Magic's interview with Enrico Casarosa:
http://animated-views.com/2007/enrico-c ... tatouille/

[Meg]

With 6.5 millions tickets sold, RATATOUILLE is the year's most succesful movie. The rat beats Spiderman 3, Pirates 3, Shrek 3, Transformers and all of its competitors. CongRats !

I wonder if Jim Hill is going to comment on that...

[Daniel]

He's probably writing an article about it, as we speak... err.. write!

[eddievalient]

I've never understood why Jim Hill gets knocked so much. I don't look at his site as often as I used to, but whenever I see one of his articles it's always an entertaining read. So what's the problem?