Space Chimps Trailer, Beowulf Clip
Short Segments Promote Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount Films
Two clips for Paramount's Beowulf and Twentieth Century Fox's Space Chimps have appeared online. Check them out, if you dare.
A couple of clips for Vanguard/Twentieth Century Fox's Space Chimps and Paramount's Beowulf have found their way online. Here's what they look like, and where to find them.
Space Chimps trailer: The Wrong Stuff in More Ways than One
What's the fastest way to turn a humble Animated Film writer (uh, that would be me) against a movie? Release a teaser trailer like the one for Space Chimps.
So what's wrong with this spot? Let me count the ways. In a time frame spanning less than one minute, the filmmakers drop references to:
- Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (there's a snippet of Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra in the soundtrack: you know the one I'm talking about)
- The Wizard of Oz: "There's no place like home, there's no place like home!"
- Philip Kaufman's 1983 historical drama The Right Stuff: "The chimp with the wrong stuff . . ."
- The original Star Trek TV series: "Boldly goes where no man has gone before."
And let's not forget the obligatory urine joke, which I always love seeing. Essentially, what director Kirk De Micco and the rest of the Space Chimps crew are telling us is that they have no original ideas, and so they have to blatantly plunder from other sources in order to get the gags. In other words, this flick ain't looking good.
As I mentioned in my previous story, Space Chimps is "a comedy adventure about two N.A.S.A. chimps that are sent to a galaxy far, far away," says the flick's official site (notice the Star Wars reference?).
"One chimp has 'The Right Stuff,' and the other, a good natured goofball, has 'The Wrong Stuff.' The two chimps find themselves on a strange, uncharted planet, where they embark on a fantastical journey to save its inhabitants from a tyrannical leader."
Andy Samberg (Hot Rod) voices Ham III, aka the goofball chimpanzee. Stanley Tucci voices a self-serving senator (right now I hear you asking: "Are there any other kind?"*) while Jeff Daniels portrays the aforementioned tyrant. Kristin Chenoweth, Patrick Warburton, Cheryl Hines, Kenan Thompson, Zack Shada and Omid Abtahi also voice roles in this flick.
I'm giving Space Chimps the benefit of the doubt for now, but if Fox doesn't kick things up a notch for the next trailer, reviewers may end up prematurely relegating this sucker into the "bomb" pile. If you want, you can check out the Space Chimps teaser trailer by clicking over here.
Space Chimps flies into theatres in May of 2008.
Beowulf Clip: Beowulf Versus the Sea Monsters
Yahoo recently scored a 45-second clip of Beowulf (the titular hero of the film) scrapping with some nasty looking sea monsters. According to Ray Winstone's voice-over (he voices Beowulf in the flick, while Alan Ritchson provides the buff bod) the monsters attack while Beowulf is having a five-day swimming competition with a pal. When his buddy becomes a monster's hors d'oeuvres, Beowulf turns back to try and avenge his friend's death.
It's a pretty rockin' sequence that ends with our hero apparently getting swallowed by one of the toothy creatures. Of course we presume that Beowulf somehow got out this jam alive, since he's telling the story, and his voice doesn't have some weird echo from sitting inside a monster's stomach. You can check out the clip by clicking over here.
Beowulf swashes his buckles into theatres on November 16th.
(*I'm kidding, I'm kidding! I'm sure there are decent, incorruptible senators out there who only have the best interests of their constituents at heart. I just haven't met any. <grin>)
