Why Are the Trailers For Musicals Pretending They’re Not?

My daughters undergo TV phases. They slim in on one explicit present till they’ve binged each episode, then rewatched each episode, then memorized each episode, at which level if another sequence will get their consideration, they could elect to start out that course of over once more with this new object of fixation. In the previous few years, we’ve had Paw Patrol phases, we’ve had Bluey phases, we’ve had Power Rangers phases, we’ve had Barbie phases, and as I’m writing these phrases I’m simply now realizing I’m a horrible father who lets his youngsters watch method an excessive amount of tv.

One of my youngsters’ most intense TV phases hit about two years in the past, once they found a French animated sequence known as Miraculous a couple of woman superhero named Ladybug and her super-powered buddies. Over a interval of a number of months, they watched effectively over 100 episodes of Miraculous, whereas filling up their playroom with Ladybug toys and dress-up units.

Eventually they moved on to different issues, as they at all times inevitably do, however they have been very excited after I confirmed them the trailer for Miraculous: Ladybug & Cat Noir, The Movie. And no surprise; the trailer makes it seem like a better-animated model of the TV sequence they cherished.

READ MORE: The Best Movie Musicals of the twenty first Century

A number of weeks later, the movie arrived on Netflix. My women have been prepared. The Saturday morning after its streaming premiere they plopped down in entrance of the tv for a brand new Ladybug journey.

What they noticed … confused them.

Yes, the Miraculous movie was nonetheless about the exploits of Ladybug and her buddies, together with the roguish good-looking Cat Noir. But the film was additionally one thing the trailers by no means even hinted at: A full-blown musical.

My daughters weren’t essentially upset, and so they have been comfortable to have new Miraculous content material to look at for the first time shortly. But about 20 minutes in, my youngest daughter walked over to me and whispered “Dad, why are they singing so much?”

It was a good query; the Miraculous TV sequence was undoubtedly not a musical. I had a completely different query on my thoughts: If the Miraculous film was a musical, why didn’t the characters sing in the trailer? And why are so many trailers for musicals recently doing the identical factor: Hiding their true nature, and seemingly an enormous promoting level?

For one other latest instance, check out the trailers for Wonka. They make it seem like a candy comedian fable for youths — which it’s. It is additionally a full-on musical, which is barely alluded to besides when Hugh Grant’s Oompa Loompa reprises the well-known track from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. And as a result of Grant’s track is a callback to the earlier film, you may assume that it’s in there as an Easter egg, not as some grand indication that Wonka is a musical.

I’m additionally shocked how little the trailer for The Color Purple emphasizes the indisputable fact that it’s primarily based on a well-liked (and Tony Award-winning) Broadway musical. Yes, in a single scene, the film’s trailer reveals Taraji P. Henson’s Shug Avery singing to a crowd at a juke joint. But that’s the solely character who sings onscreen; in the event you’re not accustomed to the musical, you would be satisfied this new remake merely features a scene with some singing.

Personally if I had Fantasia Barrino — an American Idol winner and platinum promoting recording artist — in my film, and in my film she sings quite a bit of songs, I might let potential prospects know that truth. This Color Purple advert doesn’t. The trailer doesn’t even name it The Color Purple: The Musical. Instead, title playing cards check with it as “A Bold New Take on the Beloved Classic.” What makes it daring and new? Well, that’s just a little fuzzy.

The Color Purple isn’t the solely Broadway musical to get an upcoming film adaptation with a trailer that obfuscates its musical components. Early subsequent 12 months you’ll be capable to watch a brand new Mean Girls in theaters. The trailer for the movie makes it seem like a reasonably simple remake and replace of the idea. Only the presence of a musical word in the “A” of the title signifies that that is truly an adaptation of the Mean Girls stage present. No one sings on this trailer in any respect.

Even trailers for sequels to hit musicals do that. Check out the trailer for Disenchanted, the long-awaited follow-up to Enchanted, considered one of Disney’s hottest live-action musicals ever. The sequel features a complete bunch of songs by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz, who contributed the well-known music to Enchanted like “Happy Working Song” and “That’s How You Know.” Precisely zero of their new tunes are featured in the official Disenchanted trailer.

Disney performed an identical sleight of hand recreation with Frozen II, the sequel to the enormously fashionable animated musical Frozen. The first film grossed $1.28 billion and featured an Academy Award successful track that turned the earworm to finish all youngsters’s earworms. In two completely different officers trailers, there isn’t a single musical quantity from the sequel’s soundtrack, which included all-new earworms to please youngsters and drive their dad and mom loopy. (I say this from expertise. My youngsters nonetheless sing “Into the Unkonwn” typically.)

Miraculous isn’t even the solely latest Netflix musical with no music in its trailer. Did you recognize Adam Sandler’s new animated comedy Leo is a musical? If you’ve solely seen the film’s trailer, you may not. It options the ’80s tune “Take Me Home Tonight,” as an alternative of 1 the movie’s a number of unique songs.

This could not appear to be lots of trailers, however Hollywood doesn’t make that many musicals lately, and this contains a fairly hefty proportion of the latest ones. And all of them share a equally muted strategy to music of their promoting.

Compare these trailers with the one from the Nineteen Fifties for Singin’ in the Rain. It begins with an enormous soundstage crammed with dancers and a title card that reads “The Big, BIG Musical Show of the Year!” And then it goes proper into a clip of the three leads singing the title track. After some spoken dialogue establishing the film’s premise, most of the trailer is dedicated to exhibiting you just a little little bit of all the songs in the movie, “Beautiful Girl,” “You Were Meant For Me,” “Dreaming of You,” “You Are My Lucky Star,” and on and on.

Obviously that may be a very outdated trailer for a really outdated movie. But check out the trailer for Chicago from 2002. It opens with 20 seconds of dance strikes, adopted by Catherine Zeta-Jones singing “All That Jazz.” This film gained the Academy Award for Best Picture and grossed greater than $300 million worldwide.

Or how about La La Land from just some years in the past? Its teaser opens with Ryan Gosling crooning “City of Stars” after which proceeds by way of highlights of the numerous musical numbers.

I have to assume that somebody in a company boardroom someplace — or maybe a number of someones in a number of boardrooms, as a result of that is taking place at a number of distributors concurrently — has decided that audiences don’t contemplate musical numbers to be a promoting level for a film lately. (La La Land grossed $472 million worldwide, by the method.) Which, in fact, raises one other query: If studios don’t need to inform potential prospects {that a} film is a musical as a result of they assume audiences may not see it consequently… why are they making musicals in the first place? It would appear there’s a reasonably giant disconnect between the individuals who make the films and the individuals who market the films that must be resolved. It mustn’t really feel so miraculous when a film musical comes out and the promoting level is … it’s a film musical.

I personally love musicals and I’m at all times comfortable to see a superb one. But if the studios don’t consider mass audiences need them, why are they producing so many after which attempting to trick folks into seeing them with deceptive trailers? If it’s true that viewers don’t need musicals — a principle I’m undecided I purchase, however let’s settle for it for the second — then all you’re doing is promoting folks tickets to one thing that may in all probability disappoint their expectations. You’re setting your individual films up for failure. Just ask my youngsters. Unlike the Miraculous sequence, which they watched on an limitless loop for months, they haven’t requested me to rewatch the Miraculous film a single time.