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What Universal needs to do...

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  • enyawd72
    Maker of Monsters!
    • Oct 1, 2009
    • 7904

    What Universal needs to do...

    This latest announcement regarding the future of Universal Monsters seems horrible at best...disastrous at worst. It's obvious they just DON'T GET IT.

    Universal is sitting on a licensing goldmine, but they have their collective heads so far up their rears they can't see it.

    First of all, Universal Monsters should be SYNONYMOUS with Halloween, just like Rudolph, Frosty and Santa are with Christmas.

    Universal Monsters should be plastered on EVERYTHING during the entire month of October. Kids schools supplies, lunchboxes, decorations, paper plates and cups...you name it. Then, the Halloween merchandise. Halloween pails shaped like monsters...what kid wouldn't LOVE a Creature Halloween pail? Monster candy dispensers, novelties, costumes and masks...how about monster shaped pumpkins? Next, the movies should be re-released every Halloween season just like the Great Pumpkin. In fact...COLORIZE them. If that's what it takes to get kids to watch them...DO IT. As long as the original B&W versions are still around for us adults to enjoy it's all good.
  • palitoy
    live. laugh. lisa needs braces
    • Jun 16, 2001
    • 59204

    #2
    I have worked in seasonal merchandise for almost 20 years, Halloween and Christmas are very different. I wish it wasn't so but it is.

    I even met with Universal a few years ago, they totally do push the monsters but it's hard to justify the costs for 30 days of sales, tops.

    We went with generic monsters and that's what most companies do.

    Christmas is a longer sales window and bigger than Halloween. It's 30% of all greeting card sales in a year alone.

    I do buy any licensed merchandise I can find during Halloween, I do try and vote with my dollar.
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    • MIB41
      Eloquent Member
      • Sep 25, 2005
      • 15631

      #3
      I remember a period back probably 10-15 years ago when there were some Universal monster grabs during Halloween. Most of it was décor, but it definitely held a presence for a few brief years before disappearing into oblivion. That might have been a period when they experimented with a limited offering and didn't like the results.

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      • palitoy
        live. laugh. lisa needs braces
        • Jun 16, 2001
        • 59204

        #4
        As for colourizing, i dragged my kids to see the wolfman and the mummy on the big screen last month.

        I worried about keeping their attention especially because it opened with the slower paced mummy. Both wanted to stay for the wolfman and i found my daughter in tears at the end of that one. They're 9 and 12, they enjoyed two black and white movies. They haven't stopped talking about it.
        Places to find PlaidStallions online: https://linktr.ee/Plaidstallions

        Buy Toy-Ventures Magazine here:
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        • hedrap
          Permanent Member
          • Feb 10, 2009
          • 4825

          #5
          Universal is really at a lost. They have been for sometime, but it's not all their doing. You have to consider that a theatrical movie only makes real money now if it can screen in IMAX and 3D. That's Marvel's dirty little secret; none of their big movies are as big without those double-dip prices and the more of those screens you can book, the less individual tickets you need to sell.

          So the Uni people are trying to find a way to tap that model. What's annoying is that lack of admittance the Sommers Mummy movies were just that; action-adventure. So by blaming horror and not recognizing Brendan Fraser, they get to a to like it's a brand spankin new approach.

          On one hand, I trust the Legendary people as they know genre better than anyone. But, how do you do modern action-adventure and not callback Van Helsing, I,Frankenstein, Dog Soldiers, Blade, etc...it's nearly impossible.

          Supposedly the premise of the Mummy film is set in Iraq. At that point, you're not making The Mummy. The problem are the original ideas existed in this ethereal Victorian world and you can't make that work in a modern setting unless you're willing to treat parts of the world as foreign, mysterious lands...and studios won't out of fear of alienating an audience.

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          • Iron Mego
            Wake Up Heavy
            • Jan 31, 2010
            • 3532

            #6
            Originally posted by palitoy
            As for colourizing, i dragged my kids to see the wolfman and the mummy on the big screen last month.

            I worried about keeping their attention especially because it opened with the slower paced mummy. Both wanted to stay for the wolfman and i found my daughter in tears at the end of that one. They're 9 and 12, they enjoyed two black and white movies. They haven't stopped talking about it.
            Hitting the proverbial Like button on this one.
            Wake Up Heavy Podcast

            Find me on Twitter

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            • enyawd72
              Maker of Monsters!
              • Oct 1, 2009
              • 7904

              #7
              Originally posted by palitoy
              As for colourizing, i dragged my kids to see the wolfman and the mummy on the big screen last month.

              I worried about keeping their attention especially because it opened with the slower paced mummy. Both wanted to stay for the wolfman and i found my daughter in tears at the end of that one. They're 9 and 12, they enjoyed two black and white movies. They haven't stopped talking about it.
              That's really great to hear! I wish more kids were as receptive to the older stuff as yours. That said, I do know a lot of kids who simply won't watch a black and white anything. So, I think colorizing the monster films would go a long way towards gaining a new audience. After all, all the toys and merchandise are in color. Imagine if they could somehow replicate the glorious look of those old FM covers. I'd even watch them!

              Comment

              • Hedji
                Citizen of Gotham
                • Nov 17, 2012
                • 7246

                #8
                For color, there's always Hammer.

                Comment

                • Earth 2 Chris
                  Verbose Member
                  • Mar 7, 2004
                  • 32498

                  #9
                  My kids love the Universal movies. My son has been into them for years, and has never balked at anything in black and white. We've been watching Karloff's Thriller series, for pete's sake, and he loves it.

                  Chris
                  sigpic

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                  • madmarva
                    Talkative Member
                    • Jul 7, 2007
                    • 6445

                    #10
                    Originally posted by enyawd72
                    That's really great to hear! I wish more kids were as receptive to the older stuff as yours. That said, I do know a lot of kids who simply won't watch a black and white anything. So, I think colorizing the monster films would go a long way towards gaining a new audience. After all, all the toys and merchandise are in color. Imagine if they could somehow replicate the glorious look of those old FM covers. I'd even watch them!
                    I had the same experience with my niece and nephew. Just couldn't get them to watch.

                    While I understand colorizing films does mess with the work of the director and cinematographer, I think having a color option would be fun.

                    I enjoyed watching the colorized versions of Holiday In and It's a Wonderful Life on their BluRay releases. Both were much better executed than early attempt at colorizing Casablanca and other films in the 80s. I prefer the BW versions, but it is a nice option.

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                    • Iron Mego
                      Wake Up Heavy
                      • Jan 31, 2010
                      • 3532

                      #11
                      My 7-year old pretends she doesn't like B&W movies ("They're BORING, Daddy!") but when I watch something on TCM she inevitably gets sucked in. Plus, she LOVES A Hard Day's Night. We haven't watched any old Universal Monster movies, but a lot of them are on Xfinity Streampix right now so I may put one on to see how it goes. They might actually freak her out so I'm a little hesitant in that regard.
                      Wake Up Heavy Podcast

                      Find me on Twitter

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                      • cjefferys
                        Duke of Gloat
                        • Apr 23, 2006
                        • 10180

                        #12
                        I've hooked my kids on Laurel & Hardy, Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello, and the Marx Bros., they always want to watch them and don't even care that they are in B&W. They even like Chaplin, Keaton and Harold Lloyd, and those ones are B&W and silent. Oh, and my son is a Beatles nut, so he loves "A Hard Day's Night" too. Gotta hook them when they are young.

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