Creecher Feature: Second, Short 'Monster Trucks' Trailer Surfaces

Ahhhhh, Monster Trucks.

Paramount Animation's mostly live-action movie with hyper-real CG creatures is something of a joke right now, as it was revealed months back that Paramount is treating this like an oncoming band-aid ripping. Its first trailer drew very mixed responses, some taking note of the original and gleefully kooky premise, others saying it looks really, really stupid. Me? I like the premise fine, the execution just seems rather "there". Who is really excited about it?

(I'll make an exception for Mister Coat, for he is unabashedly a big fan of director Chris Wedge!)

The company has already issued a $115 million write-down on the $125 million-costing movie, one that they couldn't crack since its inception. Was it a PG-13 blockbuster? Or was it going to be a family-friendly funfest? Delayed for nearly two years, there were problems. Big problems. The original, fully animated creature reportedly terrified half of the young audience at a test screening, prompting a complete re-design as the movie went from big PG-13 tentpole to family picture. Its live action portions were filmed as far back as spring 2014, and supposedly several reshoots occurred. Also notice that Nickelodeon Movies is finally mentioned. Original, there wasn't going to be any Nick connection.


I guess it doesn't matter to Paramount, they are dumping this film and they pretty much know it's not going to be a profit-maker. The trailer is unusually short, clocking in at under a minute and a half. It doesn't really show anything new, it feels like a remake of the teaser: Boy meets monster, monster goes into his truck, mayhem ensues. For some reason, the trailer emphasizes the heck out of the creature's nickname... Creech. Meet Creech, like he's the next big lovable character out there.

Paramount Animation seemed to start off on the wrong foot. They function similarly to Warner Animation Group, having a variety of studios handle the animation for their films. Unlike WAG, they don't have a special logo. Monster Trucks comes from Disruption Entertainment, while 2018's Sherlock Gnomes will be a co-production between Rocket Pictures, Starz, MGM, and Mikros. 2019's Amusement Park will be done by Ilion, SpongeBob 3 of course is obviously going to be a UPP/Nick pic.

While Sponge out of Water was quite the success story, Paramount tripped up by ditching The Little Prince at last minute, not like they were marketing it very well to begin with. Then months later, they made up their minds about this festering movie. Viacom recently saw a CEO change, so maybe Paramount Animation will set off on a different path in the coming years. For now, they'll be dealing with the consequences of the product of the previous guard.

Again, ripping the band-aid.

Beyond the Sky: Fox Animation Stacks Up on Animation

I normally don't talk much about 20th Century Fox Animation as a whole...

Blue Sky is pretty much their main animation house, who makes all of their releases. Before that, things were different.

20th Century Fox really got into the animation game in the mid-1990s, establishing a house of their own - Fox Animation Studios - to compete with Disney. Their main weapon at the time was Don Bluth and his partner Gary Goldman. Don Bluth had struggled after he and Steven Spielberg split up in 1989, the films he put out afterwards were heavily compromised by the powers-that-be. His studio, Sullivan-Bluth, went out of business in 1995, the year their final picture came out: The Pebble and the Penguin. Bluth and Goldman Alan Smithee'd themselves out of it.

Instead of challenging Disney by coming up with something unique that could stack up against the mouse giant, Fox Animation Studios simply made a Disney-esque film with two guys who used to work for Disney... The result was Anastasia, a film that some of the general public mistake for a Disney film. That film did fine, so what did Fox, Bluth, and Goldman fire up next? Titan A.E. It was a bomb, and should be a cautionary tale. A film aimed squarely at the preteen boy crowd, who unsurprisingly rejected it. Bluth knew it would happen, but the heads did not listen. Fox Animation Studios was shut down shortly after the sci-fi adventure opened nationwide.

That's where Blue Sky stepped in, who actually animated a sequence for Titan A.E. Blue Sky's first feature was all-CG, and it came out at the right time. 2002 when was computer animation was super-hot, so audiences ate up Ice Age. Thankfully for them, Ice Age was a pretty good comedy that kept people coming back. The following Blue Sky features did good to some degree. While the Ice Age sequels always tore up the overseas box office, non-sequels like Rio did quite well, others like Epic did decently enough.

20th Century Fox Animation, for a long while, has tried to firestart more projects - some that will be done at Blue Sky, others? Elsewhere. Technically, the likes of The Simpsons Movie, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and The Book of Life fall under the 20th Century Fox Animation umbrella. Movie one was done by Gracie Films/Rough Draft (obviously), film two was done by Wes Anderson and various studios, film three was a Reel FX production.

Recently, it was announced that Frogkisser! - an upcoming Frog Prince-inspired book - was picked up and will be done at Blue Sky. It'll be a live-action/CG hybrid, I'm assuming the CG part will be caricature animation and not the hyper-real Jungle Book kind of CG. Nate Hopper, longtime exec, was put in charge of future hybrid flicks.

Now, it looks like Fox Animation has locked up some more things...

Recent pick-ups include...

Momotaro: Xander and the Lost Island of Monsters - Based on a novel series that draws from the stories of Japanese folk hero Momotaro, it's described as a sort of Percy Jackson-esque story. I think this one has potential, being about magic and monsters and such, doesn't sound dissimilar to Blue Sky's Anubis. That one works off of Ancient Egyptian stuff.

The Girl Who Drank The Moon - This will be a hybrid, according to The Hollywood Reporter. This one - based on the book by Kelly Barnhill - pretty interesting, it's about a town that sacrifices newborns to a forest witch who is actually friendly. She raises them and feeds them starlight, but one is accidentally given moonlight and as a result she gains magical powers.

Zita the Spacegirl - Based on a more child-friendly comic book series about a girl taking on weirdo creatures on another planet in order to save her friend from being sacrificed (wow, two in a row about sacrifice!), this one could be fun. This one appears to be an all-animated pic, so I think they could match the books' colorful style with stylized CG.

The Littlest Bigfoot - Yet another bigfoot story in animation, this one sounds like it could be pretty resonant. It's about a lonely girl whose ignored by her parents and is sent to boarding school, and befriends a bigfoot who is part of a whole clan of bigfoots.

Lastly, is a big one...

The Dam Keeper.

Yes, a full-length feature based on ex-Pixarians Dice Tsutsumi and Robert Kondo's short of the same name, one they produced through that Pixar co-op program that made Borrowed Time happen. Tonko House will be doing it, Tsutsumi and Kondo will direct, but it'll be in CG. That being said, they could probably get the CG to resemble 2D or the moving painting-like feel of the short. If Disney Animation could do it with Feast, I can think Tonko could as well.

20th Century Fox is going to bunker down on animation. Two months ago, Fox's chairman Stacey Snider moved up to CEO position, and she's going to be instrumental in really re-launching Fox Animation as a real competitor. Some of these pictures in development will be Blue Sky works, others won't, so it's good to see Fox reaching out to other animation houses rather than just one mainline studio.

Now, what does this mean for several other projects that Fox Animation announced in the past? You know, things like Nimona, Welcome to the Jungle, Fortunately, the Milk, Cardboard, A Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, and Confessions of an Imaginary Friend... Studios these days typically announce a boatload of projects, only to announce another boatload that seem like they'll move ahead.

That all being said, it makes sense... Fox is losing DreamWorks after the summer 2017 release of Captain Underpants, so they want to expand. While part of me is skeptical about the whole hybrid thing (again, will these be Jungle Book-esque? Or not?), I am interested to see what direction they'll go in. The Dam Keeper news is certainly super-exciting, and if it is to take off, I can only imagine what Fox could scoop up after that. Will they ever team up with Reel FX again? So many questions...

What say you?

Fast-Tracked: 'Sonic The Hedgehog' Movie Gets Director and a New Team

Quite a transition... Deadpool to Sonic the Hedgehog...

Who is transitioning? Tim Miller, the director of Deadpool, the edgy turbo shot in the superhero movie coffee that shook the box office and impressed critics. After having "creative differences" with Ryan Reynolds, Mr. Miller sadly left Deadpool 2, shocking the world and leaving folk skeptical. While we wait to hear what he'll be directing next, we now know what's on his mind...

Revealed by THR today, Miller is set to executive produce Sega and Sony's long-in-development Sonic the Hedgehog live-action/CG hybrid movie. The film also has a director, an old partner of Miller's: Jeff Fowler. Fowler worked for Miller's Blur Studio, who have done VFX for several blockbusters, including Deadpool. This will be the man's directorial debut. Fast & Furious man Neal Moritz is still set to produce the film.

It appears that a few changes have occurred. The project's writers are Patrick Casey and Josh Miller, they're the creators of Fox's adult-oriented animated series Golan the Insatiable. Originally, Evan Susser and Van Robichaux were going to write the film, but it seems like they were out the door a while ago. Apparently, according to hearsay, they were aiming for something that was more of a PG-13 flick.

Miller had this say about Fowler tackling the project...

"Jeff is an incredible director with strong story instincts. The world of Sonic presents the perfect opportunity for him to leverage his experience in animation to bring new dimension to this iconic character."

I'm very curious to see what they bring to this given that Miller's own Deadpool and his Goon are adaptations of very family-unfriendly comics. If Sony and Sega want this Sonic feature to be more PG, then I can imagine Miller and Fowler bringing some edge to it, alongside the Golan creators. The franchise has never really gone above the E10+ rating (before anyone says something, no, I'm not familiar with the Sonic Archie comics - apparently some of those tried to go for a teen audience at one point?), so I can imagine - at best - a very edgy PG. I just wonder what kind of tone it will take on. I doubt it'll commit the mistakes Sonic 06 made, because I honestly wouldn't want a Sonic film that takes itself way too seriously. It's possible that it could be irreverent, and mock the ins and outs of the series, but how far can you stretch thtat?

Personally, I would like to see the movie be similar to Sonic's first true 3D game, 1998's Sonic Adventure. While it's probably not chic to consider that game good in this day and age (I'm not blinded by nostalgia here, I still have a blast playing it), I actually dig that game's sometimes overcrowded story and slick style. To me it was the right mix: There was speedy action, the adventure was big in scope, the variety in the levels was great, and I liked all the backstory stuff concerning Chaos. The only big problem with that game was the actual dialogue, which was mostly boring and flat, save for Eggman's parts. If they can take that game's style and combine with dialogue that's actually good and snazzy, then I'll be content!

Or they could perhaps make it similar to the early 90s cartoon adaptation known as Sonic "SatAM", which plunged the characters into a darker sci-fi story that worked... A complete 180 from the other early 90s Sonic cartoon, for sure! (Which, I think, you can enjoy on its own terms.)

All of that aside, I think Sonic the Hedgehog would make for a fun animated movie adaptation. Plus I'd love to see the gameplay translated into dizzying scenes, you know? Him running through loops and twists and whatnot. Time and time again, studios blow it up when it comes to films based on video games. I was initially so excited at the idea of a Ratchet & Clank movie, but we ended up getting a botched matinee that came and went. See, I think animation is the perfect route for video game movies, given that some games - to me - just wouldn't work in live-action or with hyper-real CGI. Sonic the Hedgehog, I think, is one of them, alongside the likes of Mario and many others. I sincerely hope the CG side of this hybrid won't be like Jungle Book, it's Sonic the Hedgehog for Pete's sake!

Now that the film has a solid crew behind it and a director, I'm guessing this will open in 2019 at the earliest. Years back, they thought that 2018 was the target, but I think they'll end up getting it out a year later. Who knows, maybe they can bang it out. After all, Miller banged out Deadpool and made the early 2016 slot, with pretty top-notch results. I think a Sonic the Hedgehog animated movie has a lot of potential, I like the series a great deal, so I'll continue to keep my eye on this one.


What say you?

Monster Misfire: Paramount Declares 'Monster Trucks' A Massive Flop?

The Paramount Animation group is still having a rough time taking off...

Their second feature, a weird high-octane boy-and-his-pet story called Monster Trucks, was supposed to come out two years ago. Conceived some time around the group's founding in 2012, the Chris Wedge-directed live-action/vfx flick was mostly filmed in spring of 2014, back when the picture was aiming for a Memorial Day weekend release in 2015. Now, we weren't aware of what went on behind-the-scenes because Paramount Animation made it clear from the get-go that they were going to be secretive. Highly secretive. Like, J. J. Abrams-level secretive.

This movie was pushed back... And pushed back... And pushed back... How and why? Opening in January, the answer seemed to come in the form of an anonymous person who worked on the movie years back. Apparently the initial design of the creature that the main character befriends terrified the living daylights out of a test audience of kids, which resulted in delays and reshoots, and a complete redesign of the monster. (The person in question said it looked like Judge Doom, a squid, and a [he used an ableist slur here] E.T. combined.)

A recent anonymous comment that the trades mentioned indicates a possible other reason why it was delayed... Apparently it began life as a tentpole-like picture for a "broad" audience, before being watered down into a more kid-friendly affair. So does this mean Monster Trucks was almost a PG-13 Transformers-esque blockbuster-to-be? The trailer definitely gives off a Nickelodeon Movies kind of vibe, and apparently they were attached for quite some time too.

Anyways... Paramount, if we are to believe the trades' speculation, has already made up their mind. They are preparing to take a massive $115 million+ writedown because of this feature. Now Paramount said "the expected performance of an unreleased film", sources said they were referring to the truck movie. Monster Trucks or not, that's quite something... The studio declaring a movie to be a bomb many months before its release, like out loud. Usually the lack of confidence is subtly shown, via bad marketing or a dodgy release date. Nope, Paramount is upfront announcing "Yeah, this thing's gonna crash."

Monster Trucks cost $125 million to make, a ridiculously high budget for something that's quite risky. Why the shift from tentpole to family-friendly picture? Was the alleged scary monster design deliberate because at the time they weren't aiming for an audience that would include little kids?

It seems like Paramount, or should we say the V of Doom themselves - Viacom, is having a hard time getting a feature animation slate going. The Paramount Animation group, which to my understanding is more a "outside studios make the movies, we distribute" sort-of thing (think Warner Animation Group), was launched in 2012. This was done because DreamWorks was leaving the mountain after the fall 2012 release of Rise of the Guardians (which Paramount's marketing department seriously botched), so Paramount/Viacom needed something new, and fast. Happy with how the offbeat Rango did back in early 2011, in mid-2012, Paramount Animation was announced.

Right from the get-go, there were issues. They appointed the notorious David Stainton, one of the very men who poisoned Walt Disney Feature Animation during the latter Eisner years, to the top brass and then he left shortly afterwards. Then they announced a slate, and various projects here and there. They started getting top talent like Pixar's Teddy Newton and WDAS' Lino DiSalvo... The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge out of Water, debuted in February 2015 to good critical reception and impressive box office results. All was fine, right?

But they were quiet on Monster Trucks, and soon we heard that they were picking up things like... Sherlock Gnomes. Then they were going to give the acclaimed The Little Prince a US release in March of this year, even though - as far back as mid-2014, *mid-2014* - they implied that they were going to be the ones to give that feature a US release. They stalled and stalled on it, only to pull it at the very last minute. Netflix scooped it up and did it much more favors than Paramount ever did, but what a loss.

What exactly is their plan? Monster Trucks is now officially deemed a flop, and after that it's Sherlock Gnomes in early 2018. A third SpongeBob is set for early 2019, alongside a cryptic original called Amusement Park, which has a cast. Apparently that one is going to be all-animated, and not a live-action/vfx thing. With Viacom CEO Thomas Dooley on his way out in a matter of days, maybe things will change, maybe not.

But hopefully Paramount, one day, gets something going with animation. After the success of Rango and the worldwide take off of The Adventures of Tintin, naive me anticipated their future, hoping that they would be the ones. The offbeat guys who would be delivering the animated features to the mainstream that no one else was. Instead, we're stuck with a group that's being screwed over, and doesn't have a sturdy slate.

What say you?