I wouldn’t say that this thread has been racist - or xenophobic - so far. For the most part, people seem to be taking it in good humour.
I couldnt think of a better word, which was why I used racism. Which is all about picking apart humans for differences. I didnt mean anyone here was being racists, rather than judging from a distance.
Damn commies… JK 
So that’s what you meant? oh, sorry for seeing it the wrong way.
Pixar has nothing to be embarrassed about there. Everyone here knows the quality gap between the latest Shrek and TS3. They are just an immature market, and like someone said, they are attracted to dark theme movies. I find it hard to believe they have so few theaters. Are people so poor they have to wait at home for movies to be broadcast? The recent oil money from pipelines finally connected to Siberia has been a boon for them, but all the vaunted education they received before the collapse of the Soviet Union never really got translated culturally. Last summer, at some of the movie fan sites the watchers were flabbergasted at Ice Age 3’s overseas performance.
It’s been nice to see that Mexico, another emerging nation, has been gushing over the movie, making up for a laggard. Toy Story should do well in Europe, does anyone from Europe here remember how popular the first two installments were in your country? It’s the emerging nations where TS3 is at risk: few adults there saw Toy Story. Does anyone know the release schedule for this movie? It’s been a mystery.
Great Britain July 23rd [Edit] oh forget that question, I just posted 2 lists on the box office thread, which vary quite a bit.
Onlu 8 million? well Pixars dosen’t have to worry, they already have made more then Shrek 4. That’s proberly because Shrek 3 failed and they think Shrek 4 will be the same. Also they arn’t seeing it 2 times like Toy Story 3. It’s one country, no need to panic.
I absolutely adore Russia, Russians and the Russian culture, and I have a few Russian friends, so hearing about this doesn’t really surprise me. As someone else has already said, the first two of the trilogy were released at a time when Russian cinemas weren’t really up and running, and though I know this is quite a generalisation, I wouldn’t associate the Russian sense of humour to the sort of humour in the first two Toy Story films (though I can’t speak for the third). Then again, that doesn’t explain why Shrek did so well. It does seem to be a cultural thing though, and that’s a very interesting observation to make.
DarkHandOfSigourneyWeaver- I can’t speak for other European countries (we may all be in the same continent, but the cultures vary here to such an extent that grouping together countries such as England, Italy and Greece, for example, is pretty difficult) but over here both Toy Story and Toy Story 2 were welcomed with open arms. They made a lot of money and had a lot of positive reviews. I particularly remember the release of Toy Story 2, which I had to wait about a week after the actual release date to see as the tickets kept being sold out at my local cinema.
So as others and yourself have said, it’s okay if Toy Story 3 doesn’t do well in every single territory. As long as it does well in most, missing out on a country like Russia isn’t too big of a deal, even considering how large Russia is!
What I find strange is that there’s not a single Russian in this thread (even one who lives in another country).
Fairy Tales vs. American toys. Everyone, and I mean everyone in the Americas and Europe has read or heard about most of the creatures in the Shrek series. But what about moms and kids in Brazil, Russia and Japan having played, read or seen in the stores most of the Pixar toys? Etch, Barbie and Ken, and Slinky in those countries?
The last Russian type of movie I saw this summer was the masterpiece animated short from 3 years ago: Peter and the Wolf. Walt Disney redid the original Russian narrated orchestral piece and reworked the killing of a very cute animal, deemed too hard on American kiddies. I know a former St. Petersburger who now plays for a local orchestra. He is quite cultured. His countrymen were supposed to be better educated 20 years ago (when the Union collapsed) than we were, and into things like poetry. But it appears to be an enigmatic nation, full of contradictions and hard to predict.
Nice to hear about how the Toy Story series has been received in Britain, lizardgirl. It’s a shoe-in to do better than last year’s Up for your reasons (altho I think Docter’s movie was better considering its fresh, original content).
I’m shocked and surprised by this, but I guess everyone has their own preferences.
Hi guys. My name is Elina.
I am very poor and there are no cinemas in my city. Well, those two with ugly amateur painted posters don’t count. So i just sit at home, drink vodka and wait for movies to broadcast. I will surely watch Toy Story 3 at my old BW TV when they show it.
But now I’m just too busy with my Tetris as well as a collection of ugly babydolls from DDR I inherited from my mother. Who the hell can Barbie be, can anyone tell me?
And what is a “3D”?
And yeah, I love ogres. In fact I have a friend who is a real ogre. He’s big and green, We drink vodka together.
But seriously… That’s funny to read all these. No I’m not insulted despite all that stuff I wrote. I just have dark sense of humour no one can understand, ha-ha))
You want Russian here? You get it, folks.
I’ve been a long time Pixar and particularly Toy Story fan - ever since the second part was released. (also I’m a long time Barbie collector, though now mostly into Tonner dolls)
You are right that the first part wasn’t released here at all back in 1995 - at that time there were truly no modern good cinemas. I watched it after the second part.
But the second part was released on time and received well. And the third is widely advertised now, it has a good campaign. Followed by contests at various magazines and country’s biggest toy stores, merchandise, posters everywhere ets.
There was TS 1-2 3D re-release along with all the world las summer. Truly, there was.
I don’t know much about Shrek. Perhaps you guys are right, the overall financial perfomance of Shrek is better. But the first weekend after release TS 3 was the leader, definately. Now it’s third on the list, while Shrek is 6th. It was released earlier.
And why can Shrek be more popular, if it is? Not because we all have “dark sense of humour” or something. It attracts more audience of various ages. You see, russian people tend to act “too grown-up” often. I am a long time doll collector (age 24 now) and I definately watch more animation than other movies - good and kind animation without that farting gags. I am a mere exeption and I know what I am talking about. I met many people from all around the world, I lived in USA (where I preferred to spend time with Americans rather than Russians and folks from CIS) And I had an impression that for American and Europeans as well being somewhat childish is OK. And no one will point fingers at you if you are 24 years old but you prefer good Disney movie to stupid sicom\criminal TV series and still mess up with dolls.
Or, less people will point fingers at you. Being Barbie collector is not a shame, more people will understand you. If you spend 200$ for a new doll or spend 2 hours in a line to buy a ticket for a new animation (I did that once, back when Disney’s Dinosaur was released. It was right before Christmas), that would be not so weird.
But here most people think that you have to be grown up. If you are like me - why, you just need to have children, that’s it (though I myself don’t like children and would not make a good mother). Stupid stereotype which has been angering doll collectors and animation lovers all around here for a long time.
Even when I was 10 years old, I was teased for my undying passion for dolls (I never stopped loving dolls, but had to conceal it at the age 10-19) If you are 10 - you are already grown up, people wand you to grow up as soon as possible.
And those farting gags as well as dark humour are most suitable for grown up people. And Toy Story can be something way too childish, merely because it’s about toys. One more stupid stereotype. People who watch it may be families with children. Or lone (or not so lone, but not so many anyway) fans like me, or just cinema fans/critisc who watch everything anyway
A group of college students and young people here will prefer Shrek or Madagascar because they may think that it’s more suitable for them. More mature with all that gags. Even if they watched Toy Story as kids, they may think it childish, even if they liked it at that time.
(As for me, I’m OK with Shrek - but anything Pixar is better in any ways. As for the story, Shrek has its own style. It’s OK, but not my cup of tea. I truly think the only non’Pixar CGI animated thing that is worth up to date is “How to train your dragon”. Though I haven’t seen Bolt, shame on me… And Ice Age sucks, though its quite popular here)
That was long time ago, but soviet people were taught to be very simple and… aww, again too grown up. To grow up the sooner the better. It was long time ago, but some of them are still alive. Unfourtunatelly, they tend to raise less open-minded generation and their values live on. I personally hate that. Being always weird (not only a kidalt, but also a freak, loving everything extravagant always), I want more open-mindness around
As for cinemas. You are not right, we’ve got plenty of new modern cinemas recently. And more new ones are still being open. In my city there are… Oh, I can’t count them all now. But about 10, definately. Really big ones. Modern, meeting world’s standards. And right now I’m off to one of them to see Toy Story 3 for the 5th time before it stops running and I’ll have to wait for DVD. Which I will watch definately on my new widescreen TV.
There’s a Russian joke… Two friends meet. One’s wife is pregnant. The other one asks:
“So, do you want a boy or a girl?”
“A boy”
“Why?”
“I want to buy myself a remote-control helicopter!”
That’s it.
Nice to finally get some Russian perspective.
As for the whole growing up thing, I find that we Americans have that same grow up mentality at a certain age. anything between 10 and around 19 I think. you’ll notice on youtube people around 15 always feel the need to say “Im this old and I dont care what anyone says, I’m seeing toy story 3!” which to me implies that you in fact do care about your image, that you feel the need to point it out in the first place.
I disagree about things like doll collecting. you’d certainly ridiculed by your peers if you went too public about it. boys especially, but girls too.
The guy equivalent for me personally is how Im a fan of Power Rangers despite being older than the target audience. People might not openly mock me about it, but I can sense a “come on, grow up” vibe from most people that find out about it.
But what Ive found is, its often the kids/ young teens that feel the need and pressure to grow up, more than adults I think for Americans, the younger generation at least, once we get to our mid-late teens we get to the pont where we just don’t give a crap what people think. No need to feel apologetic for, say, feeling nastaligc over a franchise you liked as a kid. we encourage it in fact with movies like Spider-man and all these super hero movies that used to be super cheesy and childish. though we do tend to remove as much campyness as we can when adapting material.
I think our older generation is simiar to yours in the growing up mindset, and so are our current kids until their mid to late teens.
but I think this will fade with newer generations. I for example will encourage my kids (when I have them) to stay young in the mind. I don’t know if it’ll make a difference, but by being less uptight about what they should like in terms of hobby’s or entertainment I think and hope the next generation of kids wont have that “grow up” mentatlity as much. I for one never really had that. once I could reach the light switch I felt like I didnt need to grow any more. I admit I felt it briefly at the age of 12 and 13, but the older I got the less embarrassed I was about what I liked.
I stopped watching power rangers partly because it wasnt socially acceptable anymore at the age of 12 or 13. but i started watching again at 16 when I stopped letting the world tell me what I was too old for.
When the Little Mermaid came out on dvd years back I added it to my Christmas list without batting and eye. (keep in mind Im guy here) where as if I were around 13 I wouldn’t have done it that easily. or at all.
Wow that was longer than I expected this to be, heh.
Firstly, I’m back from movies.
My favourite cinema theater announced that tomorrow they had last day Toy Story 3 running. So I rushed today to see it one more time. You know that? It was so full I could hardly get a seat (in the first row - bought a ticket 10 minutes before start, there were just 2 seats available)
Now I guess they will actually make it running longer. Because this one always has movies running until people come to see it, not to certain date. Don’t know much about the others - I visit mainly this one. But I do hope Toy Story 3 will have better, or at least the same perfomance here, as Shrek.
Secondly. I assume in other countries there’s also that pressure about growing up. Leanore Goralik wrote a book about Barbie - “Barbie world from the inside and inside outside”, like this - the first ever complex research on Barbie in Russia. She was hanging around at BarbieCollector forum. She told a lot about 15 year old girls and any boys who are ashamed (one was banned there after hes confession - they allow only the ones older than 18 or something to participate).
But still I think it’s less than in my country. Maybe, a little bit - still less. Because, as I told, some people still have the shade of soviet mentality which is: simple and pragmatic. No fashion, less entertainment and hobbies are uselles. Luckily it’s fading as well - but still lives on.
It’s based on my own experience - I lived in the USA for some time, I met various people, both online and in real life, was talking to them.
It’s really interesting to hear about this from a Russian perspective, so thank you for your input, E.Nie, and welcome to the boards!
From my experiences with Russian, European and American people, everything you’ve said is very true, though as you said, it seems to be the older Soviet generation that has that grown-up, adult mentality and hopefully over time it will become more and more acceptable to act childish and have fun and to love animation. We even experience it a bit over here, with that well-known British ‘stiff upper lip’, but that too seems to be fading over time. It’s a good thing! But yes, it’s very interesting to hear about this from a Russian perspective.
LOL I’m sorry that made me laugh… just watched Equals Three for an hour so I’ve heard the phrase more than a few times haha.
And maybe the Russians just didn’t understand the humor because their culture is different…and their humor. I mean a lot of time I don’t understand Japanese humor, so I can see that.
E. Nie спасибо (What? I took two years Russian)
So, I give the Russians fifteen to twenty years to start loving animation. That’s if the Russians watch animation 24/7. It has taken some people 15 to 20 years to start laughing (coughs) at Japanese comedy.
It’s not so hard to understand the humour, really. Do you really think it is?
I don’t know much about Japanese comedies - unlike my former friends, I’m not into Japanese things at all. But THIS is universal, understandable to most paople despite their cultures. That’s all globalisation is about, and trust me, globalisation has reached us well here.
Well I’m myself may be rather globalised - wtf, I’m far not a soviet one. So I personally don’t see difference in humour.
When I went to Toy Story 2 back in 1999 and when I watched other Pixar movies in cinemas, the audience was always roaring with laughter. People got it pretty well.
However, they didn’t laugh a lot at Toy Story 3 - but neither they laughed at Shrek. I just think that now animated movies tend to be less funny, more filled with adventure and drama. TS3 too. (my friend, who is even more devoted fan of Pixar than I am, cried at some moments)
Previous 2 parts were funnier, just filled to the top with jokes worth quoting. THis doesn’t mean TS3 is worse, not at all - it’s great.
And even Shrek started farting less than he did.
Speaking of Japanese things again, I don’t know anything about comedies. But why the whole world is just mad with anime and manga? I could never understand that.
I can note that 10 years ago, when I became a devoted Disney and Pixar fan, I was lonely in my interest - but a lot of people I knew were fans of anime. They could turn away from any disney movie (and they didn’t want to watch TS 1-2 at all also thinking it was childish, “stupid american”. Now that they are older and don’t have that youth maximalism, some have finally admitted it is great and worth watching) but they didn’t find it weird to love Pokemons and Sailor Moon in their mid to late teens. As well as more adult anime, of course)
At that time anime was more rare, DVDs with that stuff were not sold in shops. There were mostly amateur translations spreading by fans. Now it all developed significantly. And I might find no place to represent good Jessie cosplay except putting my photos on the internet. But there are crowds of anime cosplayers at their clubs.
I personally never understood anime, and I just don’t like the overall style. Disney was always closer and more understandable, a candy for my eye, always good having humour and songs.
And to tell you the truth I never laughed much at old soviet comedies, except few childrens movies, never found them funny. Maqybe it’s because I’m from new generation, but I’m not the one.
So, Toy Story 3 is NOT a flop here, definately.
They were planning to stop it running today, but I bet they will bring it back for some extra weeks now that they saw that last days the cinema was still full. BTW, can you tell me when does it stop running in other countries?
Shrek may have had better perfomance, yes. I told you the reason. But after all, it was released earlier than TS3.
Wish I knew. I think for America at least it started when animation became too costly to do here and we started outsourcing work to other countries to save money. Then they started noticing that anime was the popular thing to to do, so they started doing cheap anime imitations, and dubs. saves money and seems to be a hit with kids.
Of course, the adults have better tastes and only go for the better stuff, but yeah even that I don’t see the appeal.
Perhaps the average movie-goers in Russia have little extra money to see more than a handful of films.
Dear Rostron2, could you please then donate generously so that I can go and see TS3 one more time? Because I’m dying to do this but I have no money sniff I’m so poor I can cry…
That is sarcasm. But is people really like the movie, they can go and see it up to 20 times. Just like everywhere else.