Here are a couple of despised trailers for Twentieth Century Fox's Horton Hears a Who and Alvin and the Chipmunks. I show you why they're hated.

This is a tale of two Twentieth Century Fox trailers. Two trailers for movies that many people feel are doomed.

Horton Hears a Who: Trailer Looks Good but Trouble Lurks Underneath

First up is the trailer for Fox/Blue Sky’s Horton Hears a Who, starring Jim Carrey and Steve Carell. I admit I liked the trailer when it first came out, but reading Mark Mayerson’s blog inspired me to give it a rethink.

Mayerson, a Sheridan College professor who created the series Monster by Mistake, lambasted both Blue Sky and the Horton Hears a Who trailer in his blog, and made some really solid points along the way.

“No question that the art direction is attractive and they've done a great job of making Seuss's characters believably dimensional,” says Mayerson. “However, good looking visuals are not enough. Seuss's language was at least half the appeal of his work and it's totally missing here.”

He also has issues with the film’s star. “Jim Carrey is fundamentally miscast as Horton, a character who can best be described as a plodder. Carrey is too high energy. The animators have no choice but to move Horton in unelephant-like ways in order to match Carrey's reading.”

Carrey is capable of real depth in his work (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, anyone?) but, like many actors, he has his default modes. Carrey probably asked for some direction but got, “Just be yourself, baby” and that’s what he gave Fox/Blue Sky. That’s a directing problem, and Mayerson feels it only gets worse.

“(W)hoever is behind the screenplay doesn't understand how to write for animation,” he continues. “There's way too much dialogue and the animators are stuck looking for gestures to keep the characters alive while the dialogue drones on.

“I don't envy the animator stuck with that Steve Carell scene. It's a tough challenge, but he or she is making it worse by using gestures to illustrate words and phrases as opposed to thoughts. The character is overly busy and the gestures are mostly empty of emotion.”

Again, most animators are drones, subject to the will of the director. If the scene doesn't work, that's because the director (who signed off on it) didn't know how to make it work. And that goes right back to how Carell's voice work was directed.

“I once had great hopes for Blue Sky . . . There is no question that they bring an enormous amount of art talent to each of their films, but there's a sharp divide between their visuals and their scripts," Mayerson concludes. "Either Fox is not giving Blue Sky enough freedom to rework scripts into animatable (sic) form, or Blue Sky itself just has no talent for story.”

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Here Comes a Trainwreck

I saw the Alvin and the Chipmunks trailer when it first appeared on the Interweb, but I refused to write about it. Yes it’s fun to rip up garbage, but you know what? There are enough cool things going on in Animated Films that I’d much rather write about stuff that excites me rather than flicks that make me want to toss my cookies.

Well, for those of you who want my nasty side, here it is. Alvin and the Chipmunks looks like it’s a trainwreck in the making and this trailer only confirms it.

So what’s wrong with this trailer and, by extension, the entire movie?

First off, using recycled (I’ll be using that word a lot) vintage footage from The Beatles films and going on about the “music that defined a generation” thing is ‘cute’ in that puppy pooping on the carpet sort of way (more about poop later).

Forget that Alvin and the Chipmunks had one major hit (“The Chipmunk Song”) way back in 1958 that they’ve been milking for the past forty-nine years, forget the two movies that tanked along the way, Alvin and the Chipmunks are important musical icons, yeah, yeah, yeah.

However, the film’s producers seem to feel that recycling (there's that word again!) a disco-era single, Lipps Inc. solitary hit “Funkytown,” is the best way to make The Chipmunks seem hip-hop n’ happenin’ in 2007.

Moving right along, Jason Lee (Almost Famous, Dogma) seems to be merely cashing a paycheck in this flick. I would say he’s sleepwalking through this part, but that would be an insult to sleepwalkers. He can’t even muster enough enthusiasm to belt out David Seville’s signature yell of “ALLLLLVVVIIINNN!!!!” And did you notice that he doesn’t even appear in any scenes along with the Chipmunks? It’s just back and forth point-of-view shots. Can you say, “Made on the cheap,” kids?

And finally comes the piéce de resistance: the inevitable poop joke. However, this trailer decides to go one further: not only do they throw in a poop joke, but they depict one of the characters eating it! The only gag (pun definitely intended) in this trailer, and that’s all they could come up with?

Sorry, folks, but you can’t pay me enough money to go see Alvin and the Chipmunks when it hits theatres on December 14th.