Is this an interesting sign of things to come, or merely a one-time bit of cross-promotional marketing? Disney has announced that starting this weekend, they'll be adding an animated short to the beginning of "Bolt." Not just any short - it's a Pixar "Cars" cartoon starring the insanely popular-with-the-toddler-set Mater. Yes, "Cars" may be among the weakest of the Pixar releases from a movie purists POV, but it's by far one of the best as far as kids are concerned. In our house, I refer to it as the perfect "2+ hour babysitter" when I'm suffering from a sinus headache or have a crushing deadline.
Will adding "Tokyo Mater" to the "Bolt" experience actually boost the movie's undeservedly weak ticket sales? All I know is that The Kid's™ not quite old enough to hear about this sort of stunt yet, much less understand it, but if she were 5-6 years old, I'm petty sure I'd be hearing about it and would have to seriously consider a second matinee visit to the local theater.
Hitting theaters across the country on December 12, "Tokyo Mater" is the first Disney Digital 3-D short film and will be screened with Bolt (no technological slouch itself) as the full-length adventure enters its fourth week in release. The strategy harkens back to earlier days of Pixar when A Bug's Life and Toy Story 2 were re-released theatrically with alternate "blooper reels," designed as a "thank you" to repeat viewers.
This time, John Lasseter takes the director's chair for the first time since 2006's Cars, bringing the automotive characters back to the big screen as part of an ongoing series of "Cars Toons," the first three of which have already aired on the Disney Channel, Toon Disney and ABC Family. This time, the Cars characters mark Pixar's first step into the third dimension, a rather wonderful first example of what we're going to be seeing from the studio in the years to come.
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on Dec 11th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Theo just saw this commercial this morning and it definitely increased his interest in Bolt. Heck, I want to see Bolt, just haven't had time. I'm not sure this is enough to move Tale of Despereaux down in his TedFlix™ Queue, though. That's the #1 most anticipated movie with my 3 year old right now.
I know many don't consider Cars a masterpiece on par with many of the other Pixar films, but like you said it's very entertaining to kids. And it's been an absolute merchandising cash cow for Disney.