In just over 2 months, DreamWorks Animation will unleash their only CGI animated flick of the year: Monsters vs. Aliens, starring the voices of Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Kiefer Sutherland and Stephen Colbert.
The International Movie Poster Awards site recently got a hold of 5 new one-sheets for the DreamWorks Animation movie. It's interesting to note that, although the bulk of the flick revolves around Susan Murphy AKA Ginormica (Reese Witherspoon), most of these posters feature B.O.B. the Blob (Seth Rogen).
Oh yes, and it doesn't help that B.O.B. is in the exact same pose for all of those posters.
The tagline "Ooze gonna save us?" isn't the wittiest slogan ever written, but at least it's better than DreamWorks Animation's previous effort: "Ooze your daddy." Scientific research showed that the latter slogan unleashed violently homicidal tendencies in Buddhists.
As mentioned many times before, Monsters vs. Aliens will be DreamWorks' first foray into what it's calling "Tru 3-D" animation. Despite the fact that there are some questions whether or not there will be enough 3-D theatres to properly show the flick, DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg is convinced that this process is the way to keep audiences coming back to theatres, and not illegally download films onto their computers.
Will Monsters vs. Aliens Be Any Good?
That is the million dollar question (more like something around $150 million). Unlike other studios which are a little more consistent about bringing the rock – or the suck – DreamWorks Animation's output has been wildly inconsistent over the past several years.
While 2006's Over the Hedge was a cute little flick that did decent business, Flushed Away was an $145 million nightmare (the fact that they and Aardman Animation were feuding over the film didn't help).
2007 was even more inconsistent: Shrek the Third was reviled by critics and loved by moviegoers, while both critics and viewers united to completely ignore Bee Movie. However, last year brought 2 hits: Kung Fu Panda – which was the highest grossing animated film of 2008 – and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa which did even better at the box office than its 2005 predecessor.
DreamWorks Animation seems to be aiming itself directly at the populist market, positioning themselves as the lower-browed alternative to Pixar. Certainly, Pixar's movies aren't making quite as much money as they indulge their artistic ambitions but DreamWorks' field is getting increasingly crowded, with Twentieth Century Fox jockeying to displace DW as the #2 CGI animated studio, and Universal and Sony joining the fray.
There haven't been any preview screenings for Monsters vs. Aliens, which could mean one of two things:
- DreamWorks Animation knows this thing's gonna be a stinker
- The animators are working down to the wire on this project.
Which is it going to be? Find out when Monsters vs. Aliens opens on March 27th.
Dominic von Riedemann - Dominic is the Animated Film Feature Writer, and winner of 11 Suite 101 Editors' Choice Awards.
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