About Me 0093: Kids Making Money

If a film studio can’t bring in audiences to a slick-looking, 3D animated film starring animals with famous voices, they might as well hand over their keys. Making kids movies is like printing money; even the bad ones are usually successful in some way. That makes it tough to gauge just how big a role the marketing played in it.

For example, on April 15 Blue Sky is releasing Rio directed by Carlos Saldanha, who has done Ice Age, Robots, Ice Age: Meltdown, and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs for the CG animation house. It features characters voiced by Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway, Jamie Foxx, Tracy Morgan, Leslie Mann, Jemaine Clement, George Lopez, Jake T. Austin, Will.I.Am and is about a rare bird (Eisenberg) who finds out there’s one other bird in the world like him, and she’s female (Hathaway), so he travels to Rio de Janeiro to win her heart.

While the main characters are important, side characters regularly make these movies and that’s what these new character posters focus on. The question remains, will posters like this make much of a difference? Check them out and let us know.

Thanks to Latino Review for the heads up on these posters.

Here’s the official plot description of Rio.

Blu (Eisenberg) is a rare species of blue macaw resident at a bookstore in Minnesota, who is the last of his kind. When scientists learn that another macaw was spotted in South America, and that the macaw, Jewel (Hathaway), is female, they take him out of Minnesota and send him to Rio de Janeiro to meet her. While there, he learns to confront his fear of flying in order to win her heart. Along the way, they get kidnapped by Fernando (Austin) to sell them to get a fortune. After they escape, they try to avoid the thieves with help from Rafael, a wise Toucan (Lopez), Luiz, a chainsaw ”professional” bulldog (Morgan), Linda, Blu’s owner (Mann), a redhead bird (Will.I.Am) and a small yellow canary (Foxx), and also avoid the theives’ pet cockatoo, Nigel (Clement).

That makes the top poster Jesse Eisenberg and Anne Hathaway, the second poster George Lopez and Tracy Morgan, the third poster Will.I.Am and Jamie Foxx and, by process of elimination, the last poster Jemaine Clement and Jake T. Austin.

What are your thoughts on Rio? Is it going to live up to Pixar’s high-standard? Do you get it confused with Rango like I do? And does it need to release posters like these?

Andrew Luck is returning to Stanford for 2011

Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

ESPN.com has just released an article saying that Stanford star QB Andrew Luck will go back to school for his senior season. Luck was ranked as the No. 1 QB on almost everyone's draft board if he was to come out of school early.

For most teams, he was probably No. 1 on their draft boards. Carolina was suspected to take Luck with the first pick in this year's draft. Carolina said they were interested in the Junior from Houston, Texas.

"'I am committed to earning my degree in architectural design from Stanford University and am on track to accomplish this at the completion of the spring quarter of 2012," Luck said in a statement.

Good for Luck. Luck could have entered the draft this year and would have been the hands down No. 1 pick. He could have gotten a contract at least the size of what Sam Bradford got, which was $78 million. He could have started right away on a team that is desperate for a piece to build a team around.

However, Luck made the decision that most would call the wrong one. Why risk your No. 1 draft status to play another year of meaningless college football? Why not go to the NFL and get $40 million in guaranteed money?

I see it differently. Andrew Luck is "true old school," as his dad said. He wants to finish out his college experience and get his degree in architectural design. Props to a man who wants to go back to school and is not interested in the money and the fame and fortune that goes with the NFL life.

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Monday, January 10, 2011

Kids Making Money

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