Toy Story 3 Plays it Safe (Post 3 of 3)

Posted on August 16, 2011 by Frederick Greene

 

What I’m saying, therefore, is that while this trailer is unrepresentative of the film in tone and gravity and plot, underselling the film in each of those areas is an understandably prudent choice.   A recent work of market research[1], focusing on audience reaction to Sequels, in terms of expectation and satisfaction, as well as in historical box-office metrics, arrives at the somewhat unexpected conclusion that film audiences, in the market for an experience, prefer films of a series to present significant (even generic) differences from each other.  As the highest grossing and most favorably reviewed (which is saying a lot) of the three, TS3 seems to have understood this lesson, raising the stakes still higher,  and escalating the emotional response from excitement to terror, from tears of laughter to gasps of horror.

(Official Trailer for Toy Story #2)

The trailer, however, knows that its job is to activate audience demand for more of what they love (characters, animation, heart, humor) about the series, while indicating that a new (but similar) set of mishaps will involve our brave, resourceful—and very lucky—toys.  Like the Trailer for TS2, this trailer is comic and lighthearted, glancing obliquely at disaster to provide the soupcon of thrill.

(Official Trailer for Toy Story #1)

Interestingly, in the first Toy Story, the trailer makers presented the case for a thrilling adventure, in which Woody is menaced by a “toy torturer” and rescued from a vicious, toy-destroying dog. It’s the story they had to work with and they were unconstrained by the burden of their subsequent and spectacular success, to play it safe.

In terms of edit decisions and visual presentation, the shot selections consistently emphasize centered, individual characters, whether human or toy, as they speak, look or contemplate.

 

As for composition,  in the TS3 trailer, shots of two characters are staged on the diagonal, with one forward, the other to the rear; Group shots emphasize the circle.   It is only in the last two “movements” that day gives way to a nighttime setting. Buzz’s Spanish language “reset” and the drama of his attempted escape assume a nourish aspect, that stands in contrast with the natural sunlight that permeates the opening scenes of the trailer.

 

The pace is predominantly laconic and leisurely, with quickened montages used for the attack of the pre-school children and Buzz’s failed escape plan.  In the first minute only 28 cuts are made, for a relatively sedate 2+ seconds per shot.  In the remaining 1:19, the pace quickens, both because there is more story to tell and two action set-pieces to present.   47 (give or take a couple) cuts are needed, or 1 ½ shot per second, on average.  For a two minute plus trailer advertising an action adventure, this is hardly a frenetic pace, but it is a representative one, since this series of films makes room for jokes to play out as well as poignant moments of reflection and pathos.  While kinetic action is certainly one ingredient, story is more important, and in that particular, at least this trailer is accurate.

[1] Brand Extensions of Experiential Goods: Movie Sequel Evaluations. Sanjay Sood &
Xavier Drèze, Journal of Consumer Research, 2006.

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Toy Story 3 Plays it Safe (Post 2 of 2)

Posted on August 12, 2011 by Frederick Greene

Let’s consider the commercial artistry of this two minute, multi-part film.  Structurally, the trailer for Toy Story 3 has 8 distinct movements, with three separate music cues. It uses cards, diegetic dialogue, lyrics and melody to promise a happy ending, lay out the conflict, evoke nostalgia and arouse excitement.  A blow-by-blow may prove useful:

:00 –:38 The MPAA Rating slates the trailer, followed by Pixar and Walt Disney logos which frame our expectations for the very finest in family animation.  Strings and guitar cue the opening of the door to Andy’s room (home of the toys), and the presentation of grainy, home-video-camera shots of Andy interacting with his toys at various stages of his development. Randy Neuman’s familiar voice and plangent lyrics speak of adversity crowned by temporary success and ultimate desertion and loss. (“I’ve been cold/I’ve been hungry/Now for a while/most of my dreams have come true/With all–lyric indecipherable beneath dialogue–…)

:39 –1:00 Andy’s mother’s dialogue takes up the burden of Neuman’s lyric, which continues beneath her pronouncement (to an unnamed interlocuter, presumably a neighbor or friend) “Andy’s going to College. Can you believe it,” before she addresses her son as he prepares for departure with the question that initiates the script’s conflict: “What are you going to do with these old toys?” as the screen fills with a trunk containing all our Toy Story veterans.  Andy reflects, removes Buzz and Woody from the trunk as he decides their fate, while Neuman’s lyric concludes on the heart-breaking line, “But I’ll never get over losing you.”

1:00—1:23 The music drops out as the toys debate their future: clear eyed pessimism about their obsolescence and bleak future, is resisted by Woody’s bottomless reserve of optimistic certainty, punctuated by Hamm’s pragmatic and topical suggestion that they research their value on Ebay!

1:23 – 1:35 A new, upbeat music cue is introduced by a card reading “This Summer,” in the brand-evoking Toy Story font and graphic style.  Without explaining how exactly they have come to this new place, the trailer shows Andy’s toys nervously awaiting the advent of young children to play with them. Their excitement gives way to dismay as they find themselves overwhelmed by a pre-school hoard of children who play with savage intensity.  The scenes of rough play conclude with the approach of a toddler’s tongue against the plexi-glass bubble of Buzz’s helmet and a tongue-smacking/slurping foley effect.  Clearly, too much of a good thing and too close for comfort.

(Ideologically, the message is clear: unlike Andy, with his devoted, stay-at home mom and valuable collection of desirable toys, these children attend daycare where their “collective” access to communal toys means that none are treated with respect, care or as revered personal property.  In this place, the toys are merely disposable commodities; not cherished possessions. This is a workhouse, not a retirement home.)

1:36 – 1:40  The music drops out, as Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head trade limbs and facial features in an effort reconstitute themselves after having their parts scattered by the day’s hard play.

1:41-1:49   The upbeat music returns, as a card opens this short next act.  “No Toy Gets Left Behind,” insists the graphic, as Woody tells Jessie “we’re busting out.”  We’re in the realm of adventure, following the toys under the intrepid leadership of Woody, as they launch Buzz into the air, whether in search of help or to alert Andy to their situation.  But Buzz, despite getting his wings open, crashes into an inflatable globe and falls to the playroom floor.

1:50-1:58 The music cue drops out, as Hamm and others discuss “resetting” Buzz’s operating system with a paper clip, after his damaging fall.   Woody instructs Rex to use his finger, whereupon Buzz turns on with a flourish of mechanical motion and spreading wings. He assumes a most uncharacteristic position.  Jessie asks, “Did you fix Buzz?”

1:59—2:19 A third music cue opens this final segment. It’s a flamenco tune for guitar, drums and castanets, a dramatic piece of music which backs Buzz’s rebirth as a Spanish language speaking “astronut,” in Hamm’s memorable putdown.  The Toy Story branded Logo drops down onto a black frame as the Flamenco cue arrives at its thrilling  crescendo.  Buzz says something unintelligible in Spanish to which Woody responds by  dropping his head into his hands, muttering “oh, No!”  Another card follows, with the release date, June 18th, onto which additional copy lands with a literal bounce, alerting viewers to the 3D presentation.

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Toy Story 3 Plays It Safe (Post 1 of 3)

Posted on August 10, 2011 by Frederick Greene

Toy Story 3 Official Theatrical Trailer

The 2:19 theatrical trailer for Toy Story 3 is a beautiful, effective piece of movie marketing that blithely presents the conflict driving the story before diverting audience attention into a minor, amusing sub plot. For this wildly anticipated animated summer comedy, the explicit and horrible existential threat facing Andy’s accidentally discarded toys must have seemed too truly disturbing a subject to be countenanced by its advertising, especially given its G rating and child-intensive family audiences.

Whether the decision derived from adverse testing or gut intuition about how best to position the third of a hyper-successful, critically acclaimed and culturally resonant trilogy (for many, myself included, the finest studio film of 2010), the trailermakers decided it was better to leave the audiences with the impression that Woody, Buzz and the others will face nothing more terrible than separation from Andy, mauling at the hands of a hoard of pre-school children, and worry over Buzz’s Spanish language persona.

In hindsight, this trailer, while editorially skillful and commercially sophisticated, never scales the dramatic heights of the film because it withholds the fearsome dangers encountered and survived by our protagonists in their quest to return to Andy’s house.  The tone is lighthearted, despite the nostalgic note struck in the lyric and melody of Randy’s Neuman’s song.  Had we seen the Toys, riding a river of junk toward a fiery oven, holding hands as they faced imminent, horrible death, we might have wondered at Andy’s cruelty or his mother’s indifference. We might not have wanted to take our children to such adult themed fare, and our enjoyment of the toys well-established schtick might have felt indecorous contrasted to the impending holocaust.  Instead, we anticipate that “rough usage” at the hands of poorly supervised and badly raised children is the extent of the danger. We worry lest Buzz fail to recover his native tongue or fret at his new, exotic mannerisms.

The makers of cultural, commercial, artistic juggernaut like Toy Story 3 are probably no less worried about success than the makers of any other film. Indeed, they may be more so, considering heightened awareness and the weight of expectation, given Pixar’s phenomenal track record.  A Disney Marketer might be forgiven for not wanting to make a trailer for the film–at all– given how aware the public already was and how profound an appetite for the film already existed.

Quite simply, a trailer for a film like Toy Story 3 has almost no hope of increasing excitement and winning undecided viewers. Indeed, it is almost all risk: risk of alienating an audience by too similar a story to its predecessors, or too different and unfamiliar a one.  Even the 3D exhibition format might prove objectionable to purists who like the way the previous two films were shot.   With a “product” like TS3 (as with this Summer’s Harry Potter and the Ghostly Hallows) less is best, since nothing short of global cataclysm – or a misguidedly accurate trailer– would have kept  fans and parents with children from buying tickets to the latest and last of the series.

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