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In regards to the probable success of the Final Fantasy movie, I think
it comes down to one factor, though the factor does have two parts: how
the two upcoming "non-traditional" animated features do at the box
office. The reason for my use of quotation marks will be explained in a
second. The ones I'm referring to are "The Iron Giant" and "Mononoke
Hime/Princess Mononoke;" there may be more that will affect the BO
performance, but I must claim ignorance in upcoming releases of any
non-Disney animated films in 2000.
Okay, why "non-traditional," and why are these two movies important? The
reasons for deeming Mononoke this (and if you don't know about the film
yet, shame on you!) are obvious, and it will be a real litmus test to
see the American public's response to an adult animated feature in
widespread release. If Mononoke succeeds, it will have also broken down
a little bit of the barrier in the public's mind about "that weird
Japanese cartoon stuff," and, as there's no way Square will be able to
hide the fact that it's game-related, that will be important as well.
Even if they tried, I'm sure that there would be some coalition of
concerned parents circling the theatres on release day, saying that the
evil game movie was trying to warp their childrens' fragile little
minds. And, if Mononoke doesn't succeed, this could actually be a
problem. With Americans' tendancy to finger-point combined with the
failure of the public to see animation as aimed at anyone but five year
olds, the FF Movie could be seen as somewhat of a subversive influence.
I mean, heavens, one of the characters from an earlier game wore a black
trenchcoat and went around killing people! <insert horrified gasp, and
start singing a song called "Blame Tokyo">
Now, the adult animation area has been explored earlier in American film
history, albeit with limited success. The most prominent example is "Who
Framed Roger Rabbit," but that succeeded as an adult movie because the
live actors were there to soften the blow...or, rather, to harden it.
That is truly an exception, however; compare Who Framed to its
contemporary "Cool World," or earlier works by Ralph Bakshi, such as
"Fritz the Cat" or "Heavy Traffic." While the latter two performed
moderately well at the box office (with Fritz becoming somewhat of a
cult classic), they did poorly compared to their live action
counterparts. And "Cool World" and Bakshi's "Wizards" both bombed. We
just simply can't seem to see cartoons as works in their own right, and
it will be important to have Mononoke help break that stereotype. As
it's already made a profit in Japan, it won't be seen as taking as large
of a risk as were it original to the States; if it bombs, and the FF
movie still manages to do well, bully for it. However, if both bomb (as
would be more likely if the former does), the losses from the more
expensive FFM would steer film makers away from doing a repeat of such
an endeavor.
Okay, what would actually happen is that all the neat stuff along these
lines to be released in the foreseeable future would be Japan-only. As
they view animation as a medium rather than a strictly-defined genre, I
have no doubts the movie will succeed there. But back to us.
I've rambled about Mononoke; what about my other choice, "The Iron
Giant?" While less vital than the first, it will be an important little
test as well. I've heard nothing but positive buzz about the movie, and
I tend to read critics who bitch about problems rather than provide
fawning soundbites for no reason other than to get mentioned in the ads.
It is a more traditional (read: "less adult") movie, and, if not for one
thing, it might seem to fit into the Disney mold. However, it
has...no...songs (gasp!). While "Antz" might have seemed to be the test
on this account, that movie suffered from the Armageddon/Deep Impact and
Dante's Peak/Volcano syndrome with "A Bug's Life," and it doesn't really
work to judge it by itself. The public, after all, saw it as just one of
the bug movies. But...this is standing by itself. And it's different.
I honestly don't know what the public reaction to this will be. Even
"Prince of Egypt," with its scenes of slaves being whipped, a man's
corpse after a hundred-foot fall, and all the other Biblical stuff still
had cheerful little ditties. Heck, it even had Steve Martin singing. And
we *liked* that it had Steve singing. We're *comfortable* with Steve
singing. The great lord on high that is Disney has decreed that all
animated features will have songs, and have songs they do.
So, what was this more-than-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-
American-animation rambling about? In short, we're a nation of Pavlov's
dogs, and only a certain kind of animated film is heard as a bell. If we
can't be taught to respond to a buzzer as well before the Final Fantasy
movie comes out, I doubt any amount of publicity will gain it the box
office take from the general public we'll need to keep getting movies
shipped to us from the Honolulu studio.
The sad thing is that I didn't have to look up a single one of those
references.
-Kristen
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