Originally Posted By mawnck That made-in-India Disney CGI feature is going to be playing in 23 (count 'em, 23) theaters this weekend. <a href="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=NwxuKY24edU" target="_blank">http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=...uKY24edU</a>
Originally Posted By Route66 Hey I already know all the words by heart to the theme song,, Romeo Romeo Romeo Romeo Romeo Romeo Romeo Romeo Romeo Romeo Romeo Romeo Romeo Romeo Romeo Romeoooooooooooooooo
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA Hmmmm.... If this didn't have 'Walt Disney Pictures' at the front of it, would you be that excited? Looks pretty lame...
Originally Posted By jdub I am thrilled about the partnership, it's true. I am a Bollywood fan in general, and this will be the first animated Bollywood film I'll be seeing. The preview utilized music from other hit movies-- yes, I'm pretty excited.
Originally Posted By jdub LOL, well, maybe here in the U.S. Bollywood is HUGE. Also--having grown up on Disney, I'm much more attracted to dancing & singing dogs than I am to (ugh) Cars.
Originally Posted By jdub And if I hate it? I will say so. But I'm not going to hate it before I've seen it.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>I would say that it appeals to a very, very small audience.<< Errrr, not exactly. There are over a billion people in India. It wasn't made for the US market. It's odd that it's being released here at all. BTW ... I've seen some Bollywood CGI animated features. Horrible. The trailers for this one have a higher budget than the entire movie did on the previous ones.
Originally Posted By jdub >> It's odd that it's being released here at all.<< Well, my area has a very high Indian/Indian-American population; I've got two Indian theaters in my city alone, and more still within a comfortable drive. Netflix, by the way, is carrying a growing collection of Bollywood films. They always show up when I look at my "Local Favorites" section!
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA >>I would say that it appeals to a very, very small audience.<< Let me restate my comment. I would say that it appeals to a very, very small audience of English speaking people who live in the United States who typically go to see Disney animated movies. How's that. I can safely say that as a 46 year old, I've never watched a Bollywood movie in my life. So an animated movie that is a send up of Bollywood movies has absolutely no appeal.
Originally Posted By mawnck Saw it today. It's Bollywood for the Furries! Disney it is most certainly not. I don't care whose CGI castle is tacked onto the front of it. The Disneyness mainly takes the form of the production values being about a billion times better than all the previous Indian animated features I've seen. Formerly pampered singing and dancing dog gets tossed out on the street, starts an instantly successful beauty salon for dogs with a gang of street bums (one of whom is a cat who wants to be a dog), and falls in love with the evil crime boss's bi - uh, girl. It's sort of hard to evaluate this flick, since it's obvious that the whole thing is a doggie send-up of Bollywood musicals, slam-packed with specific references that I clearly wasn't going to get. Very slapsticky. Some Shrek-ish gross-out humor. I found it hokey and unconvincingly plotted, but I'm not sure that's considered a bad thing in this context. The characters themselves aren't thought out well - they act one way in one scene and do something totally inconsistent in the next. Major plot developments are blasted past without any fanfare or setup, and they fall in love faster than in any other movie I've ever seen. (Maybe it's a dog thing.) The character designs are pretty ugly, the animation is Hoodwinked-ian, and the musical production numbers are great. I'm sure they were using motion capture for the dancing, since it was quite spiffy. All the characters are a lot more appealing when they're singing. A little less conversation and a lot more boogeying would've done this movie good. It's in Hindi (I think) with nicely done English subtitles. The script is liberally peppered with English phrases and sentences, with the lead character particularly prone to switching languages every couple seconds, with mixed success. It has a pointless intermission about 55 minutes in, apparently an inviolable tradition in Bollywood movies which usually run north of 3 hours. I do recommend it if you want to see something animated that's **really** different and reasonably entertaining. But if your last name is Jackson instead of Raksuwathaksayamaj, then be aware that you aren't even slightly the target audience and you may have a hard time dialing in to its wavelength. For those in the LA area, it appears to be playing at exactly one theater, this strange one in Lakewood: <a href="http://www.naz8.com/" target="_blank">http://www.naz8.com/</a> <a href="http://www.insiderpages.com/b/3710391057" target="_blank">http://www.insiderpages.com/b/3710391057</a> Showtimes (at least for this weekend) are every hour on the hour from 1 PM to 11 PM.
Originally Posted By jdub I saw it. Hmm... WELL. It's no "Kung Fu Panda," but I vote that Best of Breed, so the comparison would be unfair, anyhow. It is QUITE safe to say that it is, however, MUCH better than "Space Chimps" on every possible account. Basically, the animal rendering comes off a lot like Teddy Ruxpin--somewhat unreal & disconcerting. On the other hand, the fur is really quite well-done, the humans (who DO, after all, have several seconds of screentime) look about as good as most in CGI), and the backgrounds are bright & beautiful. Lots of funny bits, but ultimately, it was most certainly made for a Bollywood-oriented crowd. I've gone to many such movies, and I am familiar with the format, which "Roadside Romeo" follows as much as any live-action HindiFlick I've seen. This might be a bit of a head-twister for a novice. Will I buy it on video? Sure. I think the partnership was cool, and I hope to see more.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>It is QUITE safe to say that it is, however, MUCH better than "Space Chimps" on every possible account.<< Well now, THERE'S some damning with faint praise. Some of the Pokemon movies were better than Space Chimps.
Originally Posted By jdub >>Well now, THERE'S some damning with faint praise. Some of the Pokemon movies were better than Space Chimps.<< LOL, I think ALL of them were! What can I say, the only reviews I can give are subjective. I "get" Bollywood, I enjoy it--I rate it on a different scale. I hate "Home on the Range," I hate "Cars," THIS is okay! YES, this was formulaic crap, but with some enjoyable stuff. I like how the villain is Jabba-esque, I like the salon thing--would've loved to see all of that expanded upon.
Originally Posted By mawnck >> I "get" Bollywood, I enjoy it--I rate it on a different scale.<< Fully understand. I hope I made it clear in my review that I was fully aware that I was missing a lot of "stuff." I have seen a grand total of one live-action Bollywood movie. Enjoyed it, but the 3-hour running times dissuade me from seeking out more. The subtitles themselves were good about pointing out some of the references, frequently identifying the Bollywood-actor-I'd-never-heard-of that the character was impersonating, hilariously no doubt. Sadly the only other people in the screening were one rather quiet family, so I missed out on any audience reaction. One thing that I'd originally intended to mention was that Bollywood is a lot more impressive in live action than it is in CGI. When it isn't real humans doing those moves, seems to me it takes a lot of the fun out of it. One trailer in particular that ran before Romeo made it look terribly meh by comparison - even though I understood not a single word of it. Maybe it's just the gorgeous actresses. I dunno. The dogs definitely weren't gorgeous.
