Quote - I never said it happens overnight, but it is the sort of cycle that you drift into and then it becomes self sustaining. To use your brussel sprout analogy, if they started hyping and pushing brussel sprouts everyday, you can bet they could sell them like chocolate. I mean if they can sell worthless people like Paris Hilton to the public, brussel sprouts are a much easier subject :)

That bridge in Brooklyn is a really great deal.....!  It's a steal at the low, low price of $50,000.99!

No amount of advertising will sell grilled, chopped-up earthworms as a worthy high-protein substitute for beef.  It just ain't gonna happen.

As for Paris Hilton -- a certain sector of the public always has an insatiable appetite for watching people self-destruct.  The fascination with Paris Hilton is a phenomenon not too far removed from a crowd of people gathering under someone on top of a skyscraper roof and yelling "jump!  jump!  jump! -- but be sure to set yourself on fire first!!!!!!" Humans can be like that.  Personally, I don't find Paris Hilton to be attractive: even on the purely physical level.  But some people do -- and watching a pretty woman destroy herself is even more fun than watching an al qaeda beheading video on the internet.

Quote - Except that disney has not made a hit CG animated movie in decades. The only profit they have made from animation is by releasing Pixar movies and their theme parks. Which is why they recently handed large parts of their animation section to pixar hotshots to rebuild.

I don't recall Larry Flynt making any hit CG movies, either.  Disney's got other problems beyond just their movie divisions.........between internal company politics and some not-so-family-friendly policies that they've instituted in recent years, they've managed to seriously hurt themselves.  Plus they've made some truly awful movies, to boot -- which hasn't helped matters any.  But they are still known for what they are primarily known for by most of the public.  And partnering with Pixar or not -- Disney is still a much larger company than Playboy.

Quote - Also note i wasn't talking about porn here. Not being family friendly doesn't automatically make something pornographic you know. There are plenty of mature subjects you can tackle, without ever showing a boob or a butt. Look at Miyazaki's amazing animations like Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke or Nausicaa to see brilliant examples. Or Iron giant or Grave of the Fireflies. They are anime, but none of them have any sexual content. Not even a kiss. But they deal with loss and war and love and pain. Subjects which you cant always share with kids, but which even non horny adults can enjoy.

I wasn't impling that you were necessarily talking about porn -- but I was.  And in doing so, I was pointing out some of the reasons as to why 'adult' fare doesn't fare so well at the box office as compared to 'kiddy' fare.

As for adult-themed but non-sexual CG animated features -- while it's true that there is a certain segment of the market to whom such movies appeal, it's also true that this market segment represents a solid minority.  And while it's also true that the anime minority isn't as 'minor' as it was 20-some-odd years ago -- it's still not precisely mainstream in the US.  But who knows?  Maybe anime will become mainstream in another decade or two.  After all -- Japanese steak houses are quite popular.  Even though the food served there isn't authentically Japanese.  So perhaps we'll eventually see movies like The Spirits Within making a megahit.  But those types of movies don't do that now.

Quote - Of course i don't really expect the hollywood which is making this:

(Clicky...)

...to change it's mind, but as long as we have our japanese brethren to produce whatever wonderful (and yes even perverted) stuff they want, we can at least have a wide variety to choose from.

 

Oh, good.  I'll need to be sure to go camp out in line to see this one as soon as it opens.  But in the meantime, I'll keep myself entertained reading tabloid articles about Paris Hilton.

(Yeeech)

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