I'm surprised this film did so poorly at the box office, despite getting good reviews. Space Jam did great just 7 years earlier, I don't see what would've made people lose interest in the Looney Tunes during that period.
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It was released during the holiday season of 2003......I think 'Elf' and 'Cat in the Hat' took a lot of its audience.
Marketing was also a little poor......it didn't have a star like Michael Jordan to promote it this time around.
It's a shame because it's so much better than its box office numbers, and it deserves much more recognition. I certainly like it more than 'Space Jam' or 'Cat in the Hat.'
Excuse me, did you actually say that it didn't have a "star" like Michael Jordan to promote it? Michael Jordan is/was a basketball player who may have been a "star" on the court but not in films no matter how much he and other sports "stars" may think they can make the transition to acting. Please name three who have done it successfully. I'll wait.
Brendan Fraser tirelessly promotes every film he does, including this one and if anyone "dropped the ball" it was Warner Bros. themselves who were at fault putting it out at Christmas when it was clearly a summer kids movie.
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@TheChamCham You definitely have a point, but as silly as it sounds, Michael Jordan was HUGE at that time. Far bigger than any aspect of Fraser's career. Strange but true. His name and brand was simply part of the zeitgeist and he had six championships and just as many endorsement deals airing commercials around the clock. Everyone was aware of SPACE JAM. No one is saying Jordan was a good actor. No athlete is a good actor (maybe/kinda/not really Gina Carano) but his star power and therefore box office was undeniable.
shareJordan at the time of space jam was bigger than any movie star around the world. He sold it better than Brendan Fraser at the height of his fame ever could
shareI think the problem was that it was released at the wrong time. Maybe it should've come out in the summertime, when the kids were out of school. Yeah, Space Jam came out in November as well and did well. Maybe that was due to Michael Jordan's popularity?
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It should be a crime to lose interest in Looney Tunes, even in this day and age. This movie is better than Elf and Cat in the Hat. LT needs to be back on Cartoon Network where it belongs with this movie, not only during a live action movie week.
shareThe film is certainly better than Cat In The Hat (which sucked), but I don't know if it was better than Elf (even thoughr I found it to be more enjoyable than Elf)
But either way, it is a good, incredibly funny film for fans new and old of looney toons and doesn't get the recognition it deserves.
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I could make a few guesses:
-It had a fairly convoluted plot.
-It seemed to get kind of sloppy with all those characters pulling off disguises and being somebody else. That just weakens character identity and development. I've never liked that sort of thing.
-The absurd cartoon violence also seemed to underscore the meaninglessness of many of the scenes. Movies need to keep their story sense strong and engaging.
-And, as others have suggested, poor promotion and release timing may have contributed.
So, in hindsight, I would edit tighter for story focus and meaningfulness, and might have released in summer. Releasing a film about Hollywood studios, Las Vegas and the desert while everyone's thinking Christmas is non-optimal marketing, IMO.
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"That just weakens character identity and development."
It's Looney Tunes! For *beep* sake, it is about talking cartoon animals! Who hit each other with mallets and dynamite!
-The absurd cartoon violence also seemed to underscore the meaninglessness of many of the scenes.
Seriously?
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"It's Looney Tunes! For *beep* sake, it is about talking cartoon animals! Who hit each other with mallets and dynamite!"
The fact that it's explainable by it's genre doesn't mean that people are going to like it. How many movies are bendy-stretchy, absurdist, dynamite-in-the-face type cartoons? Even the successful animated movies and animated TV series are not that type. That sort of animation is only successful for Saturday morning, with very young kids.
I think most people hate bendy-stretchy, absurdist animation. Don't expect much more of it in cinema. And this movie helped to kill it.
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Wow a animazi attacking Looney Tunes. I thought some of these existed but never seen one actually posting on sites like these. Still as out there as the others though.
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Because it didn't have a dark and brooding protagonist, every character giving off a filibuster everytime they opened their mouth, or preaching that everybody becomes evil if they don't die young.
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I believe it had to do with marketing and promotion. 3 other notable animated films from Warner Brothers also bombs due to the same reasons:
Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm (1993)
Cats Don't Dance (1997)
The Iron Giant (1999)
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Space Jam did great just 7 years earlier
I only recently learned of the existence of this movie, and I am very sorry to see that it bombed like it did. This deserved better, much better.
It was that horsecrap Space Jam which should have bombed.
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