For those of you who read this blog for the sole reason to see if I’ve been using my crock pot lately: I totally did. Last night.
While I was browsing the interweb (when I should have been drawing) I came across a lot of interesting information about the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie, which I really don’t know anything about, but I really enjoyed reading this stuff, so I’m going to share it with you.
From Amid Amidi of cartoonbrew.com on said movie:
Despite the film’s box office success, it’s still an embarrassing project to be involved with if you’re a major part of its creative team and you consider yourself to also be an artist. This became clear when actor Patton Oswalt made an offhand comment on his blog about how he and comedian Brian Posehn were both offered the role of Ian, the agent, and how they both rejected it because of its awfulness. David Cross, who took the role, was so peeved by the notion that he was a sell-out wrote a five-point blog post defending his decision to be involved in the movie. Thankfully, the film’s animation director Chris Bailey, doesn’t have to write a blog post defending his work on the film. Because unlike live-action actors, animation artists have no choice but to work on shit. It’s the only game in town sadly.
Hmm..an artistically bankrupt piece of media that also makes money? Intriguing.
From Patton Oswalt’s myspace blog:
ALVIN AND THE CHIMPMUNKS is a blatant, soulless, money-grab — the only reason it even got MADE was because there was an family-movie-shaped-hole in the release schedule. Oddly enough, both Brian Posehn and I were offered the part of Ian, the agent. We both threw the script across the room in disgust. David Cross caught it.
But for people to whine and bitch about the movie runing their childhoods is even more disgusting. The only way the ALVIN AND THE CHIMPMUNKS movie is ruining your childhood is if you’re 70 years old, or retarded. In fact, if you liked Alvin and the Chimpmunks to BEGIN with, maybe you need your childhood raped.
From bobanddavid.com:
Up to working on “Alvin” I [David Cross in case you haven't figured that one out] had not worked in six (SIX!) months. That is an eternity if you’re an actor. Think about not working for two months with no hope of anything on the horizon. Now triple that. It was the longest period without work since after “Ben Stiller” got cancelled (the show, not the man) and I was going nuts
….
I have a pretty modest lifestyle, I live in the same relatively small 1100 sq. foot apartment since I moved [to NY]. I don’t own a car, don’t go out “clubbing”, and don’t really own anything of much value. I am in no way hurting for money but I guarantee you that I have much, much less than you think. The reason I bring this up is because two years ago I decided that I wanted to get a small place upstate. Nothing fancy, a small cottage [...]I looked informally for a long time but never found anything that I liked in my price range. Then finally, after much disappointed searching, I did. It’s a small cottage [...] in the middle of nowhere. No town, no nothing. Two hours outside the city [...] Perfect. It was a little more than I had budgeted for but it was definitely worth it. I asked the owner if he’d take some of my credibility as payment. He looked at me as if I was an alien with A.I.D.S. speaking some intergalactic gobbledy-goo. I had to patiently explain to this country bumpkin about my indie hipster cred, and I would now like to cash it in. This rural rube was so backwards and ignorant that he couldn’t even conceive of how financial markets work and simple free market capitalism. I tried again to explain the concept of the value of “credibility” and “artistic integrity” but he refused to take it in exchange for the house. This guy was a fucking idiot! But what could I do? He wouldn’t take no for an answer. If I wanted that cottage I would have to pay him money. Sigh. So I used my “Alvin and the Chipmunks” money to pay for the down payment. Seriously, I totally did.
Incidentally that’s the same kind of justification I tell myself when I do a voice in a Barbie commercial.
Also if you enjoy negative and hilarious movie reviews, check out http://www.avclub.com/content/blog/flops