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New Arnold on the block
Potential threat to Cruise, as kiddie flicks rake in big bucks
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Arthur J Pais
With two blockbuster kid movies going strong at the box-office, an offering from Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks studio doing good business and a new kid film being released this week, parents have a tough choice.
For those with very young kids, Hey Arnold! The Movie will be a good selection.
It is from the same company, Nickelodeon that made last year’s animated hit Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. Though not as sweet or inventive as Jimmy Neutron, Hey Arnold! would keep the four or five year olds amused. It is in fact a tested formula -- Hey Arnold! debuted on television six years ago and reportedly gets some 45 million viewers each month.
Arnold is a kid with a head that looks like a football – and a yellow head of hair adds to that oddity. With best friend Gerald and foe Helga (who turns out to be a secret admirer), Arnold has a knack for getting into trouble. What saves him is his passion for doing the right thing.
In his first screen venture, Arnold and his friends have to convince the neighborhood folk that the proposed shopping mall is actually bad for them. It is an uphill fight, but they win it.
While most of the reviewers have called the movie bland and simplistic, it is good to remember that it is children who drag their parents to movies like this one. And children do not read reviews.
An issue Loren King of Chicago Tribune raised is however interesting. Calling the movie “a modest, unremarkable fare, suited more to the small screen”, she complained that it was filled with ethnic stereotypes “to let us know this is a diverse neighborhood, such as the crude Italian contractor, a slow-witted Russian immigrant and an excitable, hard-to-understand Asian.”
One of the best family films in recent years, the Disney venture Lilo And Stitch, earned about $33 million in its first three days, a take that was beaten by Minority Report by about $2 million. But in mid week, it took over the Steven Spielberg opus. By June 27 and a seven-day run, Lilo And Stitch had grossed a robust $55 million, $3 million more than Spielberg’s well received Minority Report.
The word of mouth is so strong for the Disney film about friendship between a young girl and an alien that trade observers expect it to gross at least $140 million. Some even suggest that it is the sleeper of the season and could end up with more than $180 million.
Most of the reviewers found the film excellent entertainment.
In The New York Times, A O Scott called it "...a sweet, charming tale of intergalactic friendship." People magazine praised its "...radiant hand-drawn animation...". And Claudia Puig called it "an ideal family fare" in her review in USA Today.
Scooby-Doo did not fare as well with reviewers as Lilo And Stitch did, but fans are still flocking to the Warner Bros. movie that is headed for a divine $150 million gross. By June 27, it had grossed an impressive $111 million and had become profitable, in just two weeks.
Margaret A McGurk, the reviewer for The Cincinnati Enquirer, summed up the movie nicely when she declared, "Scooby-Doo is nothing more than a bubbly bit of playtime, and I say, why not?"
The story of four friends and a dog searching for clues to an eerie mystery, the movie has live actors and a spiritedly animated pooch.
"Scooby-Doo delivers just what it promises," McGurk wrote, "summer fun for families with kids, and nostalgic giggles for now-grown cartoon fans."
Where does that leave DreamWorks' Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron?
The story of a horse encountering human beings for the first time in the wild west, the film has grossed about $70 million in 5 weeks – which makes it a success, but not a killer hit. The movie is still playing in over 1,000 movie houses and could end up with an $80 million take.
Loren King, one of the critics who was fulsome in praise, wrote in Chicago Tribune that Spielberg’s “DreamWorks borrows a page from Walt Disney's book on epic animated adventures with its new wide screen production, and flatters the competition with this imitation of Disney style and sincerity.”
But not all critics were excited.
“More self-conscious and uninspiring from a dramatic point of view than one might have wished," Kenneth Turan wrote in Los Angeles Times.
I'd say, go and enjoy Lilo And Stitch. It is well animated with wonderful watercolor backdrops for the characters who live in Hawaii.
And it has one of the best scores in recent months. Alan Silvestri, who has composed music for many Disney movies, has come up with a lingering, soft score that goes well with some of the best Elvis songs.
Most important is that the movie, which is built around the Hawaiian concept of 'ohana', or the importance of family and unity, has a strong emotional pull.