Rebirth In Hollywood

This is the third time that Taylor has dubbed a Pixar animated feature film. Unlike the previous random names and dubbed characters that were only light-weight characters, the cooperation between her and Pixar Studios is completely a strong alliance. , the role is the heroine Porsche 911 Sally in the film.

Maybe if she doesn't become a singer, maybe she can become an excellent voice actor.

Not only "Cars", but also "Tangled", which is currently being created by the Disney animation department, has also sent an invitation to Taylor, asking her to dub Rapunzel Rapunzel. In this case, the quality of the songs in the film will be as good as sufficient assurance.

With the release of "Brokeback Mountain", the social situation in North America has undergone further changes. Homosexuality is gradually no longer taboo in mainstream films. Ryan also reminded the Disney animation department to do something about Andersen's fairy tale "The Snow Queen". Adapted and launched a long-length animated song and dance film of the ice and snow genre.

Of course, this is only in the conception stage, the script, song and dance, CG and 3D technology all take time.

If it lacked the big killer of 3D, the animated feature film in the previous life would not have achieved such brilliant results. After all, if it is only about the story, even if it is in the Disney animation film, that film is only in the middle class. level only.

Before the second weekend in June, "Cars" had its premiere at Chandler Hall at the Los Angeles Music Center, but Ryan, who was temporarily a full-time dad, didn't attend, just taking advantage of Sandy's sleep. Take time to watch it again in a private theater with Nicole and Lily.

Kate Beckinsale and her director husband went to film "Underworld 2" and once again sent Lily to the godmother.

As in the past, this is not a work to coax children. Although it is a CG animated feature film, it adheres to the concept of Pixar Studio's "all-ages film".

Again, similar to past protagonists like Cowboy Hook, Buzz Lightyear and Nemo. The characters in the film have obvious flaws.

There are no people without flaws, and people with flaws are not necessarily unlovable.

Pride, confusion, mutual help, humanity, touching, returning, love, and a happy ending with flaws. It's a typical Pixar character and plot.

To a certain extent, "Cars" is an inspirational film that mixes road films with a touch of nostalgia. In the process of crossing Route 66, the protagonist Lightning McQueen gained the care of a group of car friends and realized his self-worth.

While inspiring, this film does not forget to promote the spiritual characteristics of American road movies, that is, free choice and infinite inner boundaries.

The Route 66 in the film was built in 1926 and is known as the "Mother of Highways" in the United States. It is nearly 1,400 miles long from Chicago to Southern California and traverses the hinterland of the Midwest of the United States. It can be described as a material symbol of the American pioneering spirit.

The anthropomorphic endows the car with body language and ideological character. The most classic settings are the "Break Tooth" trailer, the "Beetle Edition" little flying insect, as well as the "dumb" tractor and "monster" Kangbine who appeared in cameo appearances. The long-lost innocence of many viewers may be quietly awakened. The plot is immersed in joy and sorrow.

In particular, Lightning McQueen, who was "imprisoned" in a small town isolated from the outside world, was baptized by the warmth and warmth of human relationships and the scorching world that he had no time to experience. Friendship can paint selfishness; equality makes discrimination against the old, the weak, the sick and the arrogant It pales in comparison; love makes the head occupied by utilitarianism discover that "it turns out that life can be more beautiful".

When he was dragged back to the real world again, maybe he really understood the happiness of "letting go".

Although Pixar Studios used several new technologies such as 'ray tracing' in this film and told a good story, in all fairness, "Cars" is among the animated features that Pixar has already released. The quality can only be regarded as the most mediocre part.

The film's reputation among the audience is not good or bad, and the attendance rate on the first three days is not particularly high. The North American box office was only more than 61 million US dollars, and even fell to about 34 million US dollars in the second weekend. Although the film won more than 119 million US dollars in only ten days, compared with the past two animated features, "Cars" has seen a marked slump at the box office.

However, neither Ryan nor Disney have much to worry about.

Because compared to the box office of the film, the sales of peripheral products can only be described as extremely hot.

Long before the film was released, under Ryan's strong push. Various derivatives of "Cars" have been distributed all over the world. Contrary to the film's mediocre response, the spinoff was popular with teenagers, especially boys. In just ten days, models and toys for characters like Lightning McQueen have sold more than $40 million worldwide.

All related peripheral products, the combined sales have approached 100 million US dollars.

In the past, even for animated films whose derivative sales far exceeded the box office, their derivative value was closely related to the film's box office. The derivative value shown by "Cars" was simply a special case among special cases.

This makes many survey and forecasting companies do not understand, only Ryan understands that this is just the beginning.

In his previous life, "Cars" was one of the movies that left him the deepest impression. It wasn't because of how wonderful the movie was, but in the last year of training, he had heard from high-level operators that by 2013 By the end of the year, even not counting the global box office, the "Cars" franchise brought Disney and Pixar a combined $5 billion.

This film with a mediocre response and box office is the one with the highest value creation among all the works of Pixar Studio.

To this end, in 2012, the Walt Disney Group even decided to set up a dedicated "Cars" section in Disney's California Adventure Park, which is a treatment that its films including "Toy Story" cannot enjoy.

By the end of June, when "Cars" has been released in North America for 20 days, the global box office has just exceeded 200 million US dollars, and the sales of derivatives are already close to this figure, compared with the theater chain and overseas distributors. The box office share, and the profits created by derivatives, including toys and car models, have long exceeded the box office.

This can be regarded as a very peculiar movie in the history of Hollywood. The response of the movie is completely disproportionate to the sales of derivatives.

This kind of phenomenon will only happen to Walt Disney, and only the Disney company, which started with animation, can maximize the derivative value of an animated film.

Over time, the sales of derivatives have gradually turned flat, but the numbers are still objective, and the huge peripheral income cannot be created in a short period of time, and it also takes time to accumulate.

Of course, unlike many female consumers in the past, the vast majority of consumers in "Cars" are male, which was already within the expectations of Ryan and Disney, and both products and marketing strategies were completely biased. on men.

Even the "Wall Street Journal" published an opinion piece on the front page, arguing that "Cars" related merchandise has become the "Disney Princess series" developed by Ryan and Disney for boys.

There is some truth to this. In addition to offline products, a team from Disney and Pixar started preparing for the film's derivative repertoire when it entered July. After all, with its development trend, the expected profit is too much. Amazing.

The film creates a world that belongs to cars. The first film only shows the "tip of the iceberg" of this magical world of cars. There is still too much content to be discovered. There can be too many stories in the world of cars. Mobilization is closely linked.

In addition, as the most popular toy besides Lightning McQueen, Pixar Studio will make a series of short films for the trailer die, just like the "Transformers" animation for Transformers, the animation short film is aimed at the surrounding market.

Naturally, "Cars 2" naturally entered the agenda.

And considering that "Cars 2" will take several years to be released, and the sales of peripheral products are starting to slow down, Ryan decided to let Pixar Studios create a "Cars" TV broadcast on Disney Children's Channel. The series of cartoons, initially planned to have four seasons, will run through the four years waiting for the release of "Cars 2".

There will definitely be some new roles in these short films, to expand the "car lineup" of "Cars", and Ryan will be unique and set up a "Cars" studio to deal with related work, specializing in promoting the sales of peripheral products.

As long as it can see the possibility of high profits, a huge business group like Walt Disney will run over all obstacles like a torrent to maximize profits.

In addition to formal business means, publicity and hype are essential.

Just in early July, Walt Disney filed a lawsuit against a studio located in the small town of Valencia, suing the other party for maliciously registering the domain name of "Cars" and illegally using Lightning McQueen and other series on the Internet. Character image for commercial promotion.

It's no secret that "Cars" has been selling hot items. It has already attracted a lot of media attention. The appearance of this lawsuit has provided excellent hype for big and small newspapers and online media, but there are only three top Disney executives. People know that this is just a little trick in Disney's publicity.

However, just when Pixar Studio was once again generous, the animation departments of other Hollywood companies have targeted Pixar Studio, especially some employees whose contracts have expired. (To be continued) ()