Hey folks, Harry here with a very early look at the ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE movie from the 3ft2 peepers of one Segue Zagnut. He stresses vehemently that this was a WAY EARLY screening for the film, with a lot of tweaking left to be had. He chimes in on some of it, and goes into spoilers when necessary, but labels his spoilers ahead of time so you can avoid them if you wish. Now, for the man with the booster seat to take over... Here he is...
Head Geek,
This is Segue Zagnut. I just saw the first screening of the big summer family film from Universal that comes out this July 4th weekend: The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. The effects and animation was mostly done, but this was a very rough version. I would guess that there is still a lot of editing planed and the music was very temporary (thank god). In fact, it looked like an early enough version of the film that I want to emphasize that this was a TEST screening. The version I just saw and the one that comes out on July 4th could be significantly different even if they don't take any of my upcoming advice. That being said, let me tell what was good and where it went wrong.
It starts out great. It is very funny and just like a classic R&B cartoon. It seems that R&B have been living a sad life at home in their cartoon world off of increasingly diminishing residual rerun checks. That is until Fearless Leader, Boris and Natasha bring them out of a 35 year hiatus to make a movie... sort of. Only the producer (cameo by Janeane Garofalo) who okays it, can't green light it and the movie is DOA again. That doesn't matter for FL, B or N because they have already arrived in the 'real world' Hollywood (played by Robert De Niro, Jason Alexander, and Rene Russo) and FL immediately sets about plans to rule the world. His plan: turn everone in America into zombies by forcing them to watch really bad T.V. then tell them to vote for FL as President.
The FBI discover his plan and send Karen Sympathy (played by Piper Perabo) to find the only two who can stop FL before the whole country is zobified. Enter R&B and the rest of the movie is a road trip comedy from L.A. to the N.Y. headquarters of Really Bad T.V. Sadly it is here that the movie gets lost.
The animation looks great. I'm sure the few places where there were kinks will be ironed out by release. They nailed the R&B humor and charm across the board. This IS Rocky and Bullwinkle. Bad puns, self referential humor, political satire, and moral lessons all stay intact with the big screen translation. It is clear that everyone involved got what made the show cool and funny. The stars are all good, perhaps a little underused, but it isn't really their movie.. it's R&B's.. so that is fine too.
It also has some great satire. Bullwinkle comments that every city in America looks the same after seeing sign after sign for fast food restaurants and major grocery stores. Students protest Bullwinkle's honorary diploma from Whatsamatter U, because he only gets it for donating money. And the ultimate message is 'turn off the T.V' and start paying attention. So what's wrong with it you ask.
After it starts good... it gets boring and the sub plots don't hold together. The movie is currently around 90 minutes. They could cut it to 70 easily. The cameo's of big stars Janeane Garofalo, John Goodman, Whoopi Goldberg, Carl Riener, Jonathan Winters, etc... are okay, but play kind of forced for the most part. And, the ending doesn't work..
I know the studios hate this, but I am now going to be that 'asshole guy on the internet' who tells you how to fix your movie.
A significant portion of the road trip is derailed by a boring sub plot involving Agent Sympathy going to jail for stealing a car then lying her way out. It is not funny. It is boring. And what is the point? Part of the message of the film is the ends don't justify the means. The court scene later with Bullwinkle as her lawyer in court is great. Very funny, makes the same point and with its scene conclusion also lampoons the American court process. The prison stuff and Sympathy's lying to the guard, degrade that message enough that my 9 year old was very confused. She said to me afterwards, "Why wasn't Agent Sympathy a bad guy? A lot of what she did was against the law, and she never learned that lying was bad." All the stuff with Sympathy in jail and that story line should be junked. It is not worth trying to save.
*SPOLIERS* *SPOLIERS*
The end is anti-climatic and well... dumb. First of all, nobody does anything. Rocky and Sympathy arrive at NY headquarters only to immediately be strapped in chairs and do nothing. Bullwinkle gets e-mailed from the White House to FL's computer, gets printed out, reforms and then accidentally uses his ears to disrupt the 'vote for Fearless Leader message'. This is dumb, and by the end of the movie, a major story flaw. Because when R&B finally win, they banish FL and B&N to the internet where they will die in obscurity. So Bullwinkle can get out of the electronic world of the web through e-mail and the bad guys can't?
I believe this scene can be fixed though with not much re-shoots. Why can't Rocky somehow get loose and make it so the President goes on air in the middle of FL's broadcast... only it is Bullwinkle in the President's chair and he makes the same speech about turning off your T.V. and voting for who you want. Why doesn't Sympathy help somehow by telling the truth. That would add action, make Bullwinkle AND Rocky heroes and still keep the exact same messages, all without the stupid stupid e-mail thing.
*SPOLIERS END*
Right now, the movie stands with "The Flintstones" as a good try that doesn't really work. Some will like it, most will be bored and disappointed. If they improve it in the months ahead, it could rally as a real family film with smarts like the original Muppet Movies. I hope they finish it right, until then..
Consider This.. Segue Zagnut
