We have drama. Last night, baseball manager Katsuya Nomura ended his career with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. His contract with the team expired. In other words, he got fired. But, Mr. Nomura, who will promote the hero Carl in Up, got his last toss in the air from his players after playing his last game in the Pacific League pennant race. Just go to 1:40
youtube.com/watch?v=5SYyBP8GxoI
We have buzz. Mr. Nomura is charismatic. The TV news always interview him after every baseball game, win or lose. Baseball in Japan is the number one sport and other sports don’t matter. That’s a small exaggeration of course because it’s true. If you don’t know, Mr. Nomura turns losing teams into winners. He also berates his own pitchers when they lose. And just look at Mr. Nomura. He looks like Carl. People say that.
We have a marketing hit folks for Up or カールじいさんの空飛ぶ家. When JL came to Japan he brought Zuzu T-shirts exclusively for the Japanese market. That was totally wicked. The sixty second pathos trailer from Disney/Pixar Up got attention in the 24hour TV telethon as well. I think the trailer was shown at least four times during the daytime. There’s more, but now we have the 74 year old Mr. Nomura/Carl whose name is on the title of the Japanese version of Up. He turned around a last place team four years ago into a winning team. This is just part of the marketing of Up in Japan. This has become way better then Ponyo’s marketing. Ponyo was the number one grossing movie last year and the Dark Knight was a distant second. The Dark Knight was stupidly sold here in Japan because Hollywood or somebody thought Japan is like the states. Wrong. It’s got to be sold for the Japanese market.
There is a lot more hype to come. Up will be at TIFF today at 2:00 this afternoon. Next, who will voice the other characters in Up. This is a long shot, but I hope Hayao Miyazaki voices Charles Muntz. By the way, Mr. Miyazaki still owes JL for sponsoring him in Comic-Con in San Diego. Also, I’m hoping there will be drawings for Carl’s neckties and bow ties. Yeah, prize drawings are old fashion marketing but they work in Japan. Any new marketing is great too.
The bases are almost loaded and it will be up to Pete Docter and the Pixar crew to crack a grand slam on December 5th. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. I’m also hoping it rains or snows everyday in every part of Japan when Up comes here so people can only go to the movie theaters. Up has no competition in Japan this December so everything is looking Up. Ghibli fans wanted to see Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo leave on a high and it did. I’m pretty sure baseball fans would want Mr. Nomura to leave on a winning note because he couldn’t win the Japanese World Series or NPB Series and his old team didn’t renew his contract which he deserved. A lot of fans will go see Mr. Nomura/Carl in the theaters for an encore appearance. C’mon Pete. Smack one out of the park.
