Zemeckis, who produced "Mars Needs Moms", was slated to produce another movie. Zemeckis was going to do a remake of "Yellow Submarine" but an article in "Time Magazine" said that Disney cancelled the project. The article spoke about the very poor showing of "Mars Needs Moms" as the main catalyst for this action.
I am pointing this out because, the all too brief article, failed to speak of possible reasons for the poor opening performance of "Mars Needs Moms". In my very humble opinion, "Mars Needs Moms" was too expensive for its target audience. This movie could only have been seen in 3D and the extra money of that expense is what did it in.
If Zemeckis and/or Disney would acknowledge this then maybe the "Yellow Submarine" could once again be give a green light.
I am personally not for or against Zemeckis efforts to remake "Yellow Submarine" but I am concern that the industry is taking a turn for the worst.
Gleaming information, like critic's review and the odd one paragraph article, I am seeing a tread. The powers that Be are moving in a new direction, that is giving followers of the industry great concern on how the products the entertainment industry produce will be received by the public.
There is already some talk about franchise, like "Call Of Duty" (COD), are being burned out from over saturations. The same could be said about the over use of 3D in movies, like "Mars Needs Moms".
I am trying to think of a snappy closer for this subject but I got nothing.
I think that H-wood is over-saturating the market with 3D movies. They're cranking them out without seriously thinking about whether they should. Mars Needs Moms and Gnomeo And Juliet both sound like some producer greenlit them after hearing the titles and chuckling over the puns.
While Hollywood has a time-honored tradition of churning out as many crappy movies as good ones, it seems to lower the bar when it comes to animation. Is it because animations are geared more for the children than the adults? Very possibly. Kids could be entertained for two hours with any shiny thing; for the parents who must pay for the tickets (and must sit through the movie), it takes a little more.
And making the movie in 3D isn't enough anymore. It was a nice gimmick when it came out, but everyone is doing it now. Remember how impressive the special effects were in the original Matrix? Remember how unimpressive they were in the sequels? It's because everyone was doing bullet-time.
The studios need to treat animated movies as movies, not as animations. They can still be geared for kids, but they should be smarter when they're produced.
Phil
I agree with that.
Here is the article. At least this is the one I read. Mr. Barnes does touch on the main reason this movie, and many of Zemeckis's "Performance Capture" animated movies floped, and that is due to Zemeckis' focus on the tech, and not telling a good story. I always trot out South Park as a prime example of this. Animation can be crap, but if the story is entertaining, people will watch and like it. And yes, I know South Park's animation is a stylistic choice and not due to the artists' lack of abilities.
I think it's sad that Disney has shuttered ImageMovers Digital on account of Zemeckis' poor focus. It's another case of throwing the baby out with the bath water. Something I thought Disney would've learned from Michael Eisner declaring tradtional animation dead after their string of tradtional animated bombs, that ended with Home on the Range. Why not bring in a new director and story team the focuses on engaging stories and appealing characters?
It's tragic to see Zemeckis spiral out of control. He's always like technology, but to see him go from Back to the Future, and Cast Away to Mars Needs Moms, is sad to see.
Any way, here is the article..
"Many Culprits in Fall of a Family Film
By BROOKS BARNES
Published: March 15, 2011
. .LOS ANGELES -- In the movie business, sometimes a flop is just a flop. Then there are misses so disastrous that they send signals to broad swaths of Hollywood. ''Mars Needs Moms'' is shaping up as the second type.
Walt Disney Studios spent an estimated $175 million to make and market ''Mars Needs Moms,'' which sold $6.9 million in tickets at North American theaters in its opening weekend. That grim result puts the 3-D animated adventure on track to become one of the biggest box-office bombs in movie history, on par with such washouts as ''The Adventures of Pluto Nash,'' ''Cutthroat Island'' and ''The Alamo.''
''Scary'' is how Chuck Viane, president of distribution for Walt Disney Studios, described the audience rejection of the film. ''Was it the idea? The execution? The timing? There are a lot of excuses being floated.''
The financial impact on Disney's studio will be severe. The company has already taken a write-down of about $100 million related to the film and the closing of ImageMovers Digital, a motion-capture animation division run by Robert Zemeckis, who helped produce ''Mars Needs Moms.''
Tens of millions more in losses are expected, pending worldwide box-office results. The film opened in 14 overseas territories, representing 25 percent of the international market, and attracted $2.1 million.
Mr. Zemeckis, whose directing credits include seminal hits like ''Back to the Future'' and ''Forrest Gump,'' was unavailable to comment on Monday, a spokeswoman said.
''Mars Needs Moms'' also signals broader movie business problems. Computer animation has been Hollywood's most reliable moneymaker over the last decade -- so much so that nearly every studio, including Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures, has ramped up production of such films. As the first big-budget computer animated movie to flop, ''Mars Needs Moms'' tells some film executives that the market is becoming saturated.
''Mars Needs Moms,'' about a 9-year-old boy whose mother is abducted by Martians, followed quickly on the heels of ''Gnomeo & Juliet'' and ''Rango.'' ''Hop'' will arrive on April 1; ''Rio'' arrives two weeks later. Close behind are ''Kung Fu Panda 2'' and ''Cars 2.''
''There's only so much room in the market for family films,'' said Phil Contrino, editor of BoxOffice.com.
Movie executives also suggest that ''Mars Needs Moms'' can be seen as a consumer referendum on 3-D ticket pricing for children. While child tickets to traditional screenings run about $8.75 in large cities like New York and Los Angeles, child admission for 3-D screenings is $13. Imax charges $15.50 for children. Box-office analysts have been increasingly concerned that consumers in general and parents in particular are starting to rebel. ''We believe exhibitors' core strategy of raising ticket prices through 3-D premiums'' is a ''dangerous strategy,'' Richard Greenfield, an analyst at the financial services company BTIG, wrote last Tuesday.
It is quite rare for a Disney release to flop as badly as ''Mars Needs Moms,'' which is based on an illustrated book by Berkeley Breathed, best known for the comic strip ''Bloom County.'' Part of the problem may have been the story. What child wants to see a movie about his mom being taken away from him? But studio executives also pointed to the style of animation as a culprit.
''Mars Needs Moms'' may lead to the end for the Zemeckis style of motion-capture filmmaking, which has proven increasingly unpopular with audiences. Unlike the digital animation used by Pixar, in which movies are created entirely by computer, the Zemeckis technique requires actors to perform on bare sets while wearing uniforms outfitted with sensors to record their movements. Those movements are then transferred into a digital model that computer animators use to create a movie.
Critics and audiences alike, with audiences voicing their opinions on Twitter, blogs and other social media, complained that the Zemeckis technique can result in character facial expressions that look unnatural. Another common criticism is that Mr. Zemeckis focuses so much on technological wizardry that he neglects storytelling.
Despite his pioneering work with the technology, Mr. Zemeckis was leapfrogged by James Cameron and his megahit ''Avatar.'' Mr. Zemeckis's previous motion-capture film, ''A Christmas Carol,'' released in December 2009, was a commercial disappointment and contributed to the ouster of Dick Cook, the Disney executive responsible for putting ''Mars Needs Moms'' into production and bringing Mr. Zemeckis into the Disney tent.
Disney closed ImageMovers Digital last March after Mr. Cook's successor, Rich Ross, viewed footage of ''Mars Needs Moms.'' About two months ago, Disney quietly pulled the plug on what was to be Mr. Zemeckis's next directing project there: : ''Yellow Submarine,'' a 3-D adaptation of the 1968 Beatles cartoon.
The company decided to proceed with ''Mars Needs Moms'' in part because it had already spent so much on it and in part because some executives, notably ones left from the Cook era, acted as cheerleaders for the project.
The next big test for motion-capture filmmaking will come in December, when Steven Spielberg uses the technology in his big-budget ''Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn.'' Meanwhile, Mr. Cameron is working on two ''Avatar'' sequels. "
...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."
Mr. Cameron will be the hero for motion capture. When the AWNtv is back up, there is a clip form Image Movers which points to Cameron as the only other person with equipment and talent that matches theirs.
Image Movers did make "Christmas Carol" and that was top notch. It is just too bad that it is a story that has been told too many times.
With A Christmas Carol, it's more than just a story that's been done too many times. It's a story that's been done well too many times. The bar is pretty high with this classic.
Phil