|
 But for every young girl belting out "Frozen" princess anthem
"Let It Go," Walt Disney Co is betting there's a nerd who will
root for the geeks and robot fighting evil in "Big Hero 6."
Disney's big film this year leads a field of offbeat animated
movies featuring little green monsters and a Day of the Dead
love triangle that could lure new audiences to animation, an
increasingly vibrant segment of the movie industry, both
creatively and economically.
The Marvel comics-inspired "Big Hero 6," in theaters on Nov. 7,
is centered in a futuristic world of robotics and takes place in
Sanfransokyo, which imagines San Francisco fused with Tokyo.
"It coincides with nerd culture being popular in pop culture,"
said Don Hall, who co-directed the film with Chris Williams,
both self-described nerds.
Princess tales and the animal world dominated animation until
the late 1990s with movies such as "The Lion King" and "The
Little Mermaid."
Since then, unconventional heroes and edgier humor have emerged
to push animated fare beyond kids-only consumption.
There's the swamp-dwelling ogre "Shrek" from DreamWorks
Animation SKG's and the child-frightening goofball monsters from
Pixar Animation's "Monster's Inc." and Steve Carell's charmingly
awful villain in "Despicable Me" - all which have gone on to
sequels.
"Big Hero 6" is Disney's first animated foray into the Marvel
world, inspired by an obscure comic of the same name.
The protagonist is scrawny teen robotics prodigy Hiro, who,
after suffering a tragic loss, befriends inflatable waddling
robot Baymax, designed to be a personal health-care assistant.
Hiro and his university buddies use their scientific prowess to
transform themselves and Baymax into superheroes to combat a
Kabuki-masked villain.
"(Animation) is attracting more and more talented people and
they're creating more sophisticated stories," said Williams,
adding that studios like Pixar have "really done a lot to remove
any stigma that animation is just for kids and families."
'DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT'
Animated films in 2013 accounted for $1.7 billion of the $10.2
billion in ticket sales at U.S. and Canadian box offices,
according to movie tracking company Rentrak. Disney's "Frozen"
alone has made $1.2 billion worldwide since its November 2013
release.
[to top of second column] |
With animation making more money than ever before at the global box
office and technological advances allowing such films to be made
faster, competition is heating up for distinctive content.
"We know that we need to make a place for ourselves in the world and
in the market, and we need to do something different," said Anthony
Stacchi, co-director of independent Laika studios' "The Boxtrolls,"
about grotesque green misunderstood creatures with caring hearts.
Made for $60 million and distributed by Focus Features in September,
"The Boxtrolls" has grossed $75 million worldwide.
When making "The Book of Life" with Twenty-First Century Fox's
Twentieth Century Fox, the first major studio animated film rooted
in Mexican culture, filmmaker Jorge Gutierrez wasn't worried about
how it would resonate with non-Hispanic audiences.
"In order to be universal, you have to be specific," he said, citing
France's "Amelie" and Brazil's "City of God" movies as "being of
their countries, but are so beloved over the world."
"The Book of Life," which opened with $17 million in U.S. theaters
last week, follows a love story centered on Mexico's Day of the Dead
festival that flits between the living and the underworld realms of
the dead.
Acclaimed director Guillermo del Toro, who produced "Book of Life,"
said the film "breaks a lot of molds" that have been set in
Hollywood's animated fare.
"The problem is that people think animation is a genre for kids,"
Del Toro said. "I think American animation is all much more poor by
not tackling other subjects."
While the movie is targeted to all audiences, Gutierrez did make
"Book of Life" to represent the Hispanic community, a growing force
in the movie industry, in film.
"The Latino audience ... has exploded, and they are hungry to see
themselves up on the screen," he said. "They go to the movies more
than anyone ever thought."
(Editing by Mary Milliken and Alan Crosby)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
