talk 628

On Madagascar

Pat Wong

Last Sunday, we went to San Francisco to meet with our sons to have a family viewing
of Madagascar. Even though it was an odd-hour show at 4:45pm conflicting with most
family’s dinner schedule, I still was expecting more than just a handful of us in the
audience. Afterwards I did a brief interview with the information girl. She said the
earlier shows were quite full. I probed further and asked her to compare with the
audience of "Finding Nemo". She said Nemo was aiming at younger children while
this one is more towards adults.

Though the animation and color are good. I feel that I didn't experience the degree of
intensity I had when viewing Nemo where everybody was rooting for the baby fish!
I found I had not a definite character to root for. Bonnie thinks it is not clear what age
group this movie is targeting for - too trivial for older adults, too unfocused for small
children and not spicy enough for younger adults either. One of my son is an
animation enthusiast, but this Dream Works’ animation did not impress him as much
as the Pixar ones.

In a nutshell, I think that last Thursday’s lukewarm preview-review was justified.

It grossed $61 millions during last Memorial Day weekend. This compared with the
remade of The Longest Yard, $60 million; and Star War III, $70+ millions not even
on its premier weekend. It came in at the lower end of analysts’ expectation. Some
said it had to gross upward of $80 to $100 millions to be a big heat. Anyway, I was
stopped out on Friday as the stock dropped on the mediocre preview-review. It
dropped another 10% on the first hour of Tuesday’s session right after the bell.