Star Wars: AOTC Trailer on Monster Inc

FortKnox writes "Starwars.com has officially announced that Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones 'teaser' trailer will appear at the head of the new movie, Monsters, Inc. Other reports have the full trailer on Harry Potter, but this is still speculation. Ep-I DVD owners should be able to view the trailers on starwars.com once Monsters, Inc. hits theaters." Good thing I'm planning on seeing both of those movies anyway.

A Serious Question

[ekrout]

Am I the only one who HASN'T read the Harry Potter books? I don't mean to sound like an arrogant prick (although I really am), but weren't these books written for little kids? I mean, sure, I enjoyed Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers and all when I was younger, but these days I barely watch any TV. So, my question is "What's the appeal of these childish stories to grown, sophisticated adults?".

Thanks.

What about November 9th?

[M_Talon]

Anyone who has the Ep 1 DVD knows they've been hyping November 9th. It was just kinda assumed that was the release date for the new teaser for Ep 2. Anyone check lately to see if 11/9 is still being promoted, or if they've changed that to 11/2 (the release date of Monsters Inc)?

Try them

[BillyGoatThree]

The first book is pretty light and features HP as an 11 year old boy. But each subsequent book is darker as Harry gets older (one year per book). The first time I read the 4th book (which I'm currently re-reading in anticipation of the movie and 5th book) I snuck it into my cubicle and work and spent the entire day reading it. It's that gripping.

So no, they aren't for "little kids". They are for children of various ages. Just like the Narnia and Alice books.

Re:A Serious Question

[mikester911]

So, my question is "What's the appeal of these childish stories to grown, sophisticated adults?".

I'm sorry....were you talking about Harry Potter here, or Star Wars?

I hated Phantom Menance - not just because it was a kid's movie, but because it forced me to realize, as a 28 year old, that the first three weren't amazing films in my mind because they were amazing films, but because I saw them when I was in grade school.

Attack of the Clones should refer to how Lucas recycled his own story ideas in Phantom Menace.

I will probably go see Ep. 2, but I will hate myself for doing it.

Spoilers

[Aurelfell]

I'm almost afraid to watch teasers for Episode II. Two days before Episode I hit then theatres, I saw a track called Qui-Gon's Noble End on the soundtrack. Spoilers lake that can take away for one's enjoyment of a movie, especially and epic-style flick like Star Wars.

Actually, . . .

[Limburgher]

First of all, J.K. Rowling is a woman. On a more relevant note, the Harry Potter series is a fascinating epic with many threads and topics that keep adults enthralled, myself included. My wife read the first one, and recommended it to me, and I thought, 'oh, ok, i'll succumb to the hype this once' but it was amazing, and the other three only get better. There are also parallels with Star Wars. Young boy of unusual ability lives with aunt and uncle from infancy due to parents' mysterious deaths at the hands of an unknown evil. These facts are revealed suddenly and the boy's world is changed forever, as he learns to tap his powers and fight evil, while gathering friends. A New Hope, or The Sorcerer's Stone? Both, actually.

Re:What about November 9th?

[pmcneill]

According to the rumors on theforce.net [theforce.net], there will be two teaser trailers and the Harry Potter trailer this month. The first teaser, "Breathing" is attached to Monsters, Inc. The second is supposed to be released on November 9, and trailer "A" is November 16. Trailer B will supposedly show up in March.

Rowling, Clones Trailer

[Robotech_Master]

Well, that's what the publisher wanted you to think. Listen to some of the Rowling audio interviews from NPR [npr.org]'s archive; she says that the publisher wanted to publish her as J.K. Rowling instead of Joanne K. Rowling, out of fear that little boys would be turned off of a book written by a girl (ick, cooties!). As it turns out, they didn't need to worry; it's now well-known she's female (except on Slashdot, apparently) and it hasn't dampened the books' popularity one whit.

To avoid the dreaded Off-Topic markdown, let me just mention that, as one of the DVD-owners, I have access to the Star Wars site; they're still hyping November 9th as far as I know. For the moment, they have what can only be described as a trailer for the trailer posted--a 7-meg Quicktime slideshow called "Choices" that shows images and posits such gripping questions as "What is the cost of failure?" and, my favorite, "What do droids worry about?"

Since Quicktimes can easily be downloaded, I expect you could find it on Gnutella by now. It's not all that great, but at least it's something.

Re:huh?

[SirSlud]

Return of the Jedi?
The Empire Strikes Back?

They are cool names only because you associate them with cool movies. They sound 'retro'. Today, audiences are very wary, if receptive at all, of 'camp' and in general, the 'pulpy' style. Lucas, if anything, is not bowing down to current trends in keeping the names of the movies in line with the original campy names. Unfortunately, I thnk audiences are far too cynical and pessimmistic to accept such campy names anymore, as evidenced by the furor over the name "Attack of the Clones". Personally, I think the more money you spend on something, the less likely people are going to accept camp as entertainment, especially since camp is one of the cheapest styles to infuse into movie productions. (Indeed, being 'campy' is partly defined as appearing articicial; thus, your sets/titling/acting need not be juiced for every possible production dollar.)

The media/advertising pipelines are more clogged than ever, and since camp is more often a tool used by lower budget productions (for obvious reasons), people are not hearing of movies that utilize camp very much, and consequently are not demanding it or appreciating it unless its associated with a previously prooven franchise (ie, Star Wars, Batman, Star Trek)

At least, thats my take on it.

Garret

Re:A Serious Question

[Robotech_Master]

There's a world of difference between "written for little kids" and "written down to little kids."

You could even say there's a sort of Star Wars analogy in the books (just to keep this vaguely topical to the thread). The first two are sort of light, kind of like the first Star Wars movie...but by the time you read the third and fourth, you're getting into definite Empire Strikes Back territory. Rowling pulls no punches. The villains are black and foul, not simply "misunderstood"; they're selfish and megalomaniacal but not the self-described "evil" (as in "God, I love being evil") of many down-written kids' shows and books. People die--and worse than die. There is very little sappy moralizing or sermonizing, and what there is flows naturally from the book, from adults giving advice to kids that isn't just "do this, don't do that," but gives them credit for being able to think. And the fourth book...well, don't read the first chapter of it in a darkened room, that's all I can say.

I'd recommend buying them without hesitation, but if you're still not sure, all four of the books are available on Gnutella. I'm not ordinarily one to condone piracy without paying--but I'm confident that once you've read them, you'll enjoy them enough that you want to own them.

Re:Star Wars Trailers and Movie Grosses

[Murdock037]

I remember the same thing-- that opening weekend grosses were boosted by quite a bit because the Episode 1 trailer was attached. (For the record, though, in my area at least, it wasn't attached to Meet Joe Black-- a minor tragedy, because anticipation for the trailer was the reason I agreed to take my girlfriend to MJB in the first place).

I doubt it'll be quite such a noticable effect this time around, though, for a few reasons:

1. Star Wars fever has cooled considerably. We're not waiting here after a 16-year buildup-- it's only been a couple since Episode 1.

2. Considering the general feeling of disappointment left over from Episode 1 among the hard-core fans-- who are the ones that would pay for another movie just to see the new trailer-- it probably won't be such an event.

3. Monsters, Inc. and Harry Potter are going to do some big fat business in the first place. Any boost they get from the new teaser is probably just another drop in the bucket. I know I'm more excited to see 90 minutes of Pixar than two minutes of Lucasfilm, and I doubt you'd be able to find a kid in America that would disagree.

Of course, all of this is rambling based on knowledge gained from my Entertainment Weekly subscription, so it's all up for debate.

Re:Typical

[MikeBabcock]

You mean I'm not allowed to purchase tickets to a movie by WB or Disney but not like the fact that they take my rights away with the profits?

I thought thats what laws were for ... regulate what they could and could not do with the money they make off making good movies.

PS, yes, I do think they make good movies.

Ah, I remember the TPM trailer

[Junks Jerzey]

Having seen the Star Wars movies as a kid, the TPM trailer gave me chills. "wow, just like the previous" movies. It was so perfect, so slick, I couldn't get over it. Then I saw the movie and _yikes_ was it horrible. Did I just grow up or was TPM just plain embarrassing? Sadly I think that you needed to be nine years old to appreciate it.

how about for non-dvd owners?

[jchristopher]

I just found out that even though I own the Episode I dvd (which I use in a standalone player), I won't be able to access the trailer on starwars.com, since I don't have a DVDROM in a computer running Windows. (scam, but that's another post)

Can anyone suggest a website that will have the trailer besides starwars.com? I assume that someone will save it from starwars.com and post it elsewhere...

Spoken Like a CS Major

[Greyfox]

Good children's literature will have several levels. All a child will generally catch will be the most simplistic story, which may be about cute talking furry animals or other such children's topics. Go back and study it in college (Or a good High School) and you'll find several layers of metaphor which could cover anything from Jesus (This is a favorite, you'll find a Jesus in a lot of Children's literature) to the WWII Holocaust.

That being said, Harry Potter seems to be mostly preteen wish fulfillment with a slight Orwellian flavor. Orwell had a very similar masochistic writing style (Except his characters never had a chance.) The writing is as formulaic as Saturday Morning cartoons, and about as literary. On the plus side, it does piss the Baptists off and anything that pisses the Baptists off is a good thing in my book. It's also encouraging the kids to read, which is also a good thing, and sometimes you just want the literary equivalent of a slice of pie. After a week of digging through XML books, you really don't want to schlog through anything too heavy.

Take what I say with a grain of salt though. I also despise CS Lewis, which is the literary equivalent of having a metaphor pounded into your head with a 2x4. Also, any Disneyesque story where children overcome hideously inept adult villians. That pretty well limits the children's literature that I'll be feeding my kids.

Re:A Serious Question

[dswensen]

I should probably put on my flame-retardant suit before even saying this, but Lucas' "recycling" of his story ideas in Phantom Menace was a conscious decision on his part, not born of laziness or lack of inspiration. He sees the series as akin to a musical composition, where different themes keep cropping up again and again; slightly different, but still recognizable and similar. Therefore, the fact that characters get in similar situations, end up on the same planets, etc. is because (by his own admission) that's the way the story goes.

You can see this in the movie, and you can especially hear it in John Williams' music -- "Anakin's Theme" is the Imperial March modified, and the "celebration" music at the end of TPM is the Emperor's Theme from Return of the Jedi.

Lucas even goes so far as to call his movies "essentially silent films," guided by the imagery and the music. I find this idea interesting, but personally, don't think he's pulled it off all that well (I keep wishing devoutly for silence every time a certain CGI character opens his mouth, for example.)

How well Lucas made these ideas work, especially in TPM, is a matter of personal opinion, but, if you're at all interested, he talks about it a great deal on the Phantom Menace DVD, both in the commentary and in the many interviews on the bonus materials disc.

Re:Ah, I remember the TPM trailer

[dswensen]

I was incredibly jacked about TPM when I saw the trailer. I thought it was going to be the Best Thing Ever. Then the advance reviews started coming out, some expressing not so much disappointment as existential despair, and I started to worry. A whole generation of former kids had hung their identities on this series of movies, and felt personally betrayed when the new one didn't deliver the same magic through a wall of years and life experience.

I saw TPM opening night, I enjoyed it (with some reservations), and I've seen it many times since then. I think my initial disappointments sprung from a few things:

1) It's far from a perfect film.
2) I'm no longer a kid.
3) I expected it to be the Best Thing Ever, thereby almost ensuring it wouldn't be.

I don't think TPM was embarrassing, but I do think it's a very different film from the rest of Star Wars. It adds a more openly "comic" character (which, to my mind, was a good try but a failure), and includes things like politics, intrigue, foreshadowing, and deception -- which the classic trilogy was fairly short on.

I love and appreciate the classic trilogy for its wahoo, space-cowboys appeal, but honestly, I'm not so sure I need to see three more movies of it. I'm glad Lucas is not entirely resting on his dramatic laurels and is branching out into new ground (for him, anyway).

Personally, I'm excited to see the new flick, to see if Lucas will have learned from some of his mistakes in TPM, and also because I think TPM was all foreshadowing and setup, and we're going to see some real action in the next two flicks.