When Disney released Mars Needs Moms, most weren’t expecting it to be a hit thanks to terrible marketing and a weak plot. However, nobody guessed that it would open with less than $10 million.
Well, it’s not surprising that Disney is taking some serious action after this recent bomb. According to The Hollywood Reporter’s Heat Vision Blog, Disney has canned "Mars" producer Robert Zemeckis’s remake of Yellow Submarine.
The production for that one seemed to be shaky anyway. A presentation that Zemeckis himself was to make to Beatles heirs kept getting delayed and several monetary issues had arisen. The idea of “uncanny valley” also came into play, which couldn’t have been promising in the eyes of Disney execs. If filming for Yellow Submarine had commenced, motion-capture would be utilized to film Adam Campbell, Cary Elwes, Peter Serafinowicz, and Dean Lennox Kelly singing sixteen Beatles tunes.
I’m not a terribly huge fan of films that utilize motion-capture for the entirety of the film. The technology itself is amazing, and works great in doses, such as in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong. It just makes an odd fit as the entire framework for a motion picture.
The idea of a Yellow Submarine remake is strange enough, but making it a motion-capture release seems like an even more peculiar decision. It’s easy to see that Disney isn’t too happy about Mars Needs Moms, and who can blame them? Getting rid of this project was probably a really great decision from both a business and creative standpoint.
So, are you bummed or pleased Yellow Submarine is in the trash?