This is topic Not trusting the audience to accept the story on its own terms. in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.


To visit this topic, use this URL:
http://www.hatrack.com/ubb/main/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=053265

---

Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
 
I recently saw the teaser for The Tale of Despereaux again. The first time I saw it, I was mostly focused on WALL*E so it didn't truly sink in. This time I paid close attention...and grew very worried.

Kate DiCamillo's world-wide best-selling book is told in a deliberately old-fashioned "Dear Reader" style. It's a fairy tale of loss, grief, sacrifice, and terrible betrayal. Despereaux himself is about the only completely sympathetic character to be found...possibly also the Princess he falls hopelessly in love with. (There really is no hope: he's a mouse, she's a human. This isn't the kind of fairy tale where that will ever change.)

The other two main characters, Chiaroscuro and Miggery Sow are tragic antagonists and portrayed in a way that makes it clear they do what they do because they're broken inside. (It gets quite dark in their back-stories.)

The style is important. The author is tapping into some primal fears and sources of emotional pain...and few things are better at conveying that than an old-fashioned fairy tale.

The teaser of the animated version goes in exactly the opposite direction.

"Ha-ha! He's a MOUSE who's BRAVE! That's silly! Ha-ha!"

"Oh man, Despereaux's parents are talking with his teacher like it was a modern-day PTC! Anachronism! It's funny!"

"Ha-ha! Skinny rat trying to make the fat girl shush! Fat people are funny!"

It's barely recognizable as the story DiCamillo wrote. I'm hoping the teaser is dreadfully misleading, like the Bridge to Terabithia teaser was.

Still, I have to wonder what the studio was thinking. Did they think the book became a best-seller despite it's darker elements, not because of them? Did they decide since it was a CGI fairy tale that they'd -have- to imitate Shrek? Did they just not care? I'm getting the feeling kids who embraced the book may not care either, should the film turn out to be a "lighter and softer" cheat.

Edit: Stray "and" removed.

[ July 09, 2008, 07:09 PM: Message edited by: Puffy Treat ]
 

---

Posted by Nighthawk (Member # 4176) on :
 
But I gotta say, the animation quality is damn good.
 

---

Posted by Earendil18 (Member # 3180) on :
 
Awww dangit. I haven't read the originals, I went "oh that looks cuuute".

*listens to Wall-E soundtrack some more* Oh well...Maybe you're right and it's just the marketing. They're trying to trick parents into letting their kids watch a darker animated movie.

EDIT: I've actually thought about this because I always thought animated movies could be more mm...intense? Secret of Nimh sure packs a wallop during its scary moments.

The animation does look top notch though, and I like the illustrative quality to the whole thing. Reminds me of...Pinocchio really.
 

---

Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
 
I think the reason why it disappointed me so much is that I'm so very -tired- of movies that are scared of their audience...the ones that keep twirling their canes and nervously winking, assuring the audience it's all part of the show. Let a story of a tiny mouse betrayed by those who should have loved him most be that story.

Even Walt Disney, infamous for softening and brightening darker fairy tales still left characters and moments of terrifying power in his better flicks.
 

---

Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
 
I've been feeling the same way when I've taken my kids to movies lately, though I'm not familiar with this work.

This really struck me with Spiderwick, and with one other movie we went to right before that's escaping me right now. Everything was so paint-by-numbers. I guess it's not particularly darkness or lack of it that I'm focusing on, but just on underestimating young audiences in particular.
 

---

Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
 
I know that when I was a kid, I certainly despised any book, comic, TV show, or movie that left me feeling I'd been...well...put in the kiddie corner, so to speak.

I liked the ones that felt like they were drawing me out to something more than my experience. Not so far that it traumatized me, mind you. But farther enough that I could feel it opening my mind up.

Of course, at the time, I only thought "Wow, that story was NEAT."
 

---

Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
 
Puffy Treat, I think that underestimating the audience is one of the worst sins against art there is. Sadly, it is a safe choice and usually means that people make money.
 

---

Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
 
I can take a cold comfort that the recent "lighter and softer" cinematic versions of The Dark is Rising and The Golden Compass both flopped. If Despereaux is a toothless adaptation and also flops, maybe someone Hollywood-way will notice.
 

---

Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
 
Urg
They should not make it lighter or softer but make it the way it already is.
Good

But I like The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane a bit better.
It made my eyes get all moist, which is embarassing.
 

---

Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by kmbboots:
Puffy Treat, I think that underestimating the audience is one of the worst sins against art there is. Sadly, it is a safe choice and usually means that people make money.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Synesthesia:
Urg
They should not make it lighter or softer but make it the way it already is.
Good

But I like The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane a bit better.
It made my eyes get all moist, which is embarassing.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Puffy Treat:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Synesthesia:
Urg
They should not make it lighter or softer but make it the way it already is.
Good

But I like The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane a bit better.
It made my eyes get all moist, which is embarassing.

---

People who don't get misty-eyed when Sarah-Ruth dies have no soul.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Puffy Treat:
...the ones that keep twirling their canes and nervously winking

---

ahahahaha

that for some reason made me laugh
 

---