I love Dreamworks (animation) movies. Seriously. I adore them. Over the Hedge? Hilarious. Monsters Vs Aliens? Marvelous. Kung Fu Panda? Practically memorized it. How to Train Your Dragon? High-flying fun. Turbo? Tubular. The Road to El Dorado? Golden. (See what I did there?) In fact, of all the Dreamworks films I've seen, I can count on one hand the ones I did not thoroughly enjoy. That's a pretty good record.
That being said, I can only think of two Dreamworks films that I actually wanted to see before I saw them. Two. There are thirty-four. That's a pretty BAD record. See, as much as Dreamworks is doing right in their films, they are terrible at previews. Every single time I see a preview for a Dreamworks animated movie I think "oh my goodness that just looks terrible." Seriously, every time (except those two mentioned above, but I'll come back to those). I mentioned earlier that I have Kung Fu Panda practically memorized, but that happened only after I was bribed to go see it after many, many invitations and much cajoling. Honestly, the only reason I went was because someone else paid. And oh my goodness I love that movie ("Legend tells of a legendary warrior whose Kung fu skills were the stuff of legend!").
The same thing has happened with pretty much every Dreamworks movie I've seen since then. I watch the preview, roll my eyes at how incredibly dumb the movie looks, finally spend the minimal amount of money necessary to watch it simply because there is nothing better to watch, and wonder where this film has been all my life.
It's gotten to the point where if I see a preview for an animated film that looks awful I can pretty much guarantee that it'll be Dreamworks. And yet, I still roll my eyes and wonder how anything that looks THAT dumb can possibly come from the same writers who made Prince of Egypt and Madagascar (I'm looking at you, Boss Baby). And (nearly) every time I am reminded of how much Dreamworks just needs to fire their preview-maker guy (team? I don't know how that works, but they need a new one).
Now, there have been a handful of exceptions to this formula. There are the few Dreamworks movies that I don't really care for, but those are all within the first few years of the company's existence or sequels, both of which I find acceptable reasons for not-quite-so-fabulous-work. And then there are the (again counted on one hand) ones I haven't actually seen.
But, there have been, in fact, two cases in which I saw a Dreamworks preview that did not turn my eyeballs backward with disgust. The first time this happened I was 13 and had not yet recognized the greatness of Dreamworks or the disparity of their previews. And, to be totally honest, I didn't even know it was a Dreamworks movie until tonight when I looked up the complete list for number accuracy. And this movie which I actually wanted to see, I hated. Go figure, huh? It wasn't the MOST boring movie I've ever seen, but it's definitely in the top five.
The second time this happened (tonight, by the way), I also didn't realize it was Dreamworks, but that's because it actually looked good! So I popped it in the DVD player and saw the logo and was a little worried (because of my last experience). Could it be good, I wondered? And guess what--- it was! For the first time in the history of my relationship with Dreamworks, they actually made a preview that accurately reflected the movie it was presenting! Hooray! I am so proud of you, Preview-maker guy! 33rd time's the charm, I guess.
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