Saturday, April 04, 2009

Uh ... Make that Twenty-One

Back on the twenty-ninth, I wrote that there were nineteen animated features getting released domestically in the next thirty-three months. Then I had to amend that to include Disney's Christmas Carol, a feature from IM Digital.

But Hulett's wrong again ...

Because I overlooked this foreign-produced item to be released next Thanksgiving by Columbia-Tri-Star ...

Planet 51 was produced in Spain for sixty million dollars -- Tale of Despereaux territory -- with the American market in mind. Which makes three of the twenty-one produced overseas.

The trailer seems amusing. I have no idea if there's a picture attached to it that will make meaningful money.

But all in all, there is a crowded calendar for animated features over the next few years. Whether those features cannibalize each other ... or make the market even bigger and more robust ... remains to be seen.

We'll just have to hunker down here in the weeds and await results, son't we?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Christmas Carol isn't "animated." I've seen quite a bit of it. It's pretty hideous and falls completely flat. All that acting talent wasted. And the "look" of the film is like Beowulf, only uglier.

Anonymous said...

As long as we're on the subject of how wrong you are, how about adding "9" to that list? :)

http://www.apple.com/trailers/focus_features/9/

Jerry Beck said...

What constitutes an animated feature these days is pretty debatable. I try to keep track on my webpage: http://www.cartoonresearch.com/movies2005.html

I note that your also missing Focus Features "9" and Disney's new Miyazaki film "Ponyo" and Wes Anderson's "The Fantastic Mr. Fox". All three will be released this year.

Steve Hulett said...

Okay, pile on.

The point is, there's going to be a boatload of features that could be called "animated."

It's probably a good thing that DreamWorks has no releases in the Fall that could get stuck in the4 traffic jam.

Anonymous said...

I love the Planet 51 trailer...it reminds me of animated films ten years ago...funny. And there's no Pixar, Dreamworks debate! Woo-hoo!

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