Undermarketing

Last night Yilin and I went to see perhaps the most undermarketed movie in recent history. Well, perhaps not so much 'undermarketed' as 'improperly marketed.' We saw "Hoodwinked."

It's a computer animated movie. I had seen the trailer many times, and was amused by certain clips, but it just looked like an ok kids' movie. As a testament to the ineptitude of whoever cut and edited that trailer, I can't believe I pigeonholed that movie so inaccurately.

Upon seeing the trailer, the first thing that made me less than interested was that the animation left a lot to be desired. I wasn't impressed at all. I do not require top-notch animation, and certainly not realism, but some sort of style that goes beyond what a graduate student in computer animation could do would be nice. (Having used two of the industry-leading computer animation software packages myself and seeing "Hoodwinked" make it to the big screen, I think I am going to write my own screenplay...)

Secondly, it seemed like a marginally amusing kids' movie. Don't get me wrong, I love childrens' cinema. I could watch cartoons for hours and hours; just ask my mom. But let's face it: there are lots of crappy kids' movies out there, and I don't want to spend $11 to see another one.

However, there is one particular clip in the trailer ("Dee-na-mee-tay") that always made Yilin laugh, and yesterday she needed a good laugh. So I surprised her by dragging her to the theater to watch this movie.

We laughed out loud many times, and we weren't the only ones. There are so many levels of humor, so many references that would be above kids' heads, a very clever plot, great dialogue, top-notch actors doing the voices, and so much outright silliness that I can't believe they released the trailer that they did. This seemed more like an animated movie for grownups that kids will like, too. In fact, I don't remember any children in the theater at all.

One or two of the gags seemed a bit forced, but there were so many good ones that it was easy to overlook them. Besides, how many comedies actually succeed at getting audience members to laugh at every single joke?

This movie isn't in too many theaters in NYC right now, which means that it is probably in none outside of NYC. However, if it is playing near you I recommend that you go see it. Also, I would recommend that you don't watch the trailer (if you haven't seen it or forgotten it) before seeing this movie. Watch it after the movie and see if you ask yourself, "What were they thinking?" If it isn't playing near you, wait for the DVD.

On a side note, there are a lot of computer animated kids' movies coming out soon, and they all seem very redundant (although many of them look very funny, too). For instance, there is "The Ant Bully" which I thought was "A Bug's Life 2" from the trailer. We've seen "A Bug's Life" and "Antz", so do we really need another movie about ants? There is another movie coming out about animals from Central Park Zoo, ala "Madagascar" (which I have been wanting to see, but haven't yet). Then there is "Over the Hedge" which looks great, but still has that animals-living-amongst-humans thing that reminds me of "Madagascar" (the link points to the actual "Teaser 2" as the Apple Quicktime page here has the link wrong). "Ice Age 2" is hitting the screen, which I am sure will make me laugh, as well as a hilarious-looking computer animated movie simply titled "Doogal".

Lots of good stuff coming out this year!