Originally Posted By Imagineer This I know ABC is part of Disney and therefore it is biased, but something didn't seem right when George Pennachio, a reporter for ABC entertainment news, asked a little girl about 4 or 5 years old, "On a scale of 1 to 10 how did you like Chicken Little?" I think she was too young and didn't understand. She responded by saying something like, "Chicken Little thought the sky was falling, but it was really an acorn." George then said, "But on the 1 to 10 scale how did you like it? I think she said 10." Then he asked, "Mom do you give it a 10 too?" She said something like, "Yes I do too." (Not the exact quotes but close enough) Obviously this was poorly rehearsed or he was trying to slant their answers in Disney's favor. On the web I saw reports saying about 20 to 30 million dollars was expected to be made the first weekend. Now George comes on and says Chicken Little will make $44 million dollars as if he expected a good turnout kind of like for a Pixar or Dreamworks movie. The quotes for the ad for Chicken Little say it is a great movie blah, blah, blah, but if you look at the sources it is mostly names you never heard of. The only one I knew was Access Hollywood the rest were far away tv stations not the major markets. Missing were the big players, News Week, Time Magazine, USA Today, The New York and Los Angeles Times etc. If they can't be honest why report and review the movie in this way? Why fudge on the truth? Do you suppose it has to do with money? ;-)
Originally Posted By Blackie Pueblo Was this overhyped? Just look at the reviews from actual Disney fans. Not just any movie watcher, but an actual fan of Disney that will see anything Disney puts out. Read what most of them have to say. Overhyped? Heck yes.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss It's their job to "overhype" the movie. Of course it has to do with money.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA I was watching Good Morning America -- also ABC owned -- and the host, Bruce Weir said, "Hey, if you're going to see a movie, check out 'Chicken Run' er...uh, I mean, 'Chicken Little.'" oops...
Originally Posted By vbdad55 <If they can't be honest why report and review the movie in this way? Why fudge on the truth? Do you suppose it has to do with money? < you mean unbiased like CNN or MSNBC's coverage of politics -- or Fox's coverage of the war -- every station has an agenda....at least this one hurts no one and won't change the outcome of anything. How overhyped was Fahrneheit 911 when it was out, by the more liberal of stations - it was worked into every story for a month -- it happens, I have learned to ignore when I feel something is getting manipulated into a 'message' btw - just got back from seeing Chicken Little - suburbs of Chicago - on 7 screens in 30 screen Cineplex- and every showing today after Noon was sold out --
Originally Posted By cstephens Imagineer This wrote: > The quotes for the ad for Chicken Little say it is a great movie blah, blah, blah, but if you look at the sources it is mostly names you never heard of. You do know what a paid ad is for, right? That it's to sell the movie? That it's to put the best spin on a movie, so people will want to see it? *ALL* the studios do that. Sure, they'd love to put quotes from well-known people who love the film, but if they can't, they'll put whatever they can get, and if you pay enough attention to this sort of stuff, certain names will become very familiar as always doing reviews that will get them included in movie ads, and these are little podunk so-called publications. The major "Chicken Little" positive review that I've seen used is from Time Magazine, which I'm sure you've heard of. I definitely don't agree with the absolutely glowing review (or at least quote) that they gave, but anyone who gets that kind of review from Time Magazine is going to milk it for all its worth. At least they're not like Sony and using company employees to pretend to be movie goers giving glowing testimonials in paid ads. /cs
Originally Posted By TheRedhead Honestly, if this one instance of an ABC anchor being a company shill can make you so upset that you create ANOTHER topic, how do you watch tv at all? The WB and FOX whore out their shows all the time to keep their studio's films in your face. The cast of films will introduce a show, or exclusive clips are played at the end of an episode. And local news shows will use synergy to help their own newscasts. And if Time magazine said that I did something great, I'd hand out copies of the review to everyone I meet on the street. That's not over-hype. That's good business strategy. And the original post said, "Now George comes on and says Chicken Little will make $44 million dollars as if he expected a good turnout kind of like for a Pixar or Dreamworks movie." And from preliminary numbers, George was right. It did have a good turnout. Not the total failure you've been praying for. Sorry.
Originally Posted By basil fan Speaking of reviews, know what's weird? My local pape gave Chicken Little 2 1/2 stars with the headline, "good, not great." On the next page is a review for an unrelated film entitled " _______ is easy to love." This one also gets 2 1/2 stars. What does this tell you? What we already know: that reviews don't mean a whole lot. Mouse History 101 <a href="http://www.whatsitsgalore.com/history.html" target="_blank">http://www.whatsitsgalore.com/ history.html</a>
Originally Posted By Imagineer This ^ Yeah just cuz some people say Chicken Little is good doesn't make it so. ;o)
Originally Posted By Imagineer This My thinking was that the quality was not up to par and it was not as good as any Pixar movie, Shrek or Madagascar. That does not mean it was a complete failure. )
Originally Posted By smeeeko last week on "extreme makeover: home edition" they were pushing all kinds of stuff.. Chicken Little on the tvs and Ty Pennington's book.. sheesh. makes me miss what sounds like the 'fun old days' the GE hour or whatever with live tv and live tv commercials. at least they were up front about it.. I totally realize that tv makes money by selling but that is what the commercials are for. When you have a commercial for a movie when they break for station ID and spots, and then they sell it in the show.. that's overhyping.. I don't care if it's Lord of the Rings or Chicken Little or Madagascar it's just too much. It's like selling swiffer or Clorox on those TLC shows. bleh. perhaps 'overhype' isn't the right word. OVERKILL, maybe.. *shrug*
Originally Posted By basil fan I still prefer overhyping a movie to Disney dissing their own film the first weekend it's out, calling it a failure & basically telling audiences to stay away, ala Treasure Planet. So You Wanna Be a Collector... <a href="http://www.whatsitsgalore.com/disney/collector.html" target="_blank">http://www.whatsitsgalore.com/ disney/collector.html</a>
