Let’s just cut to the chase: there’s a recently-announced feature-length animated movie in the works based on the Austrian candy PEZ and their mechanical pocket dispensers typically holding 12 pieces of candy. Much like the upcoming Emoji movie, it’s easy to get cynical about such a revelation, and for good reason. There’s no character, story or clear-sighted motivation to come from this other than market recognition and capitalistic tie-ins. That much is obvious. So let’s see where exactly Envision Media Arts hopes to take this.
According to a press release, it’s going to simply center on “a world unique to PEZ” and on “a story that will touch the hearts of many” including “children and adults alike” who find the dispensable candy “beloved.” I take this all to mean producers Lee Nelson and David Buelow and screenwriter Cameron Fay (the upcoming Three Stooges sequel) are in the preliminary stages of this project (i.e. they have no clue at the moment how they’re going to make this work either).
They also consider the munchable sugary treat an “interactive candy that is both enjoyable to eat and fun to play with,” in-as-much as collecting model dispensers based on various TMNT and Looney Tunes characters or trying different ways to put the Altoids of candy into your mouth or pretending the flap is a moving mouth is innovative fun for the whole family. By the same logic, cherry-flavored Twizzers Peel ‘n’ Pull packets are on par with a trip to Six Flags.
The best guess here is certain studio/brand representatives misunderstand why The Lego Movie worked and want to stimulate themselves on making movies based what they develop stocks in. If that’s the case, it’s hard to imagine a more soulless venture than this, but I know I’ll be proven wrong. It’s possible they’ll get the licenses to have various Disney (they’ve already done this with the dispensers) or Star Wars characters appear in their clunky, limb-less forms, but even if they did they’d still just retread waters already crossed last year, especially if they take the now-obvious tongue-in-cheek, “golly gee, we know this idea for a movie is silly too” route. Plus, they’re going to have to create their universe from scratch, and while that may inspire some Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory-level creativity, it’s likely this is just here, primarily, to sell something to young children rather than make them develop something close-to-interesting with the “property.”
Truth be told, I can’t even pretend to get invested in what the ideas could be with this, without riping off others or just creating some run-of-the-mill story about friendship or whatever. At least when they make something like an Angry Birds movie or a Hello Kitty movie, there are worlds established already in addition to characters previously designed and allowed to be explored. This has literally nothing besides edible treats in its way. I’m not even mad; I’m genuinely curious. I want to know how this is possible. I’ll wait, Envision Media Arts. You got this before anyone else could get their hands on the rights. Let’s see what you can do with your creative minds at large. Tell me why this project won’t bite. [MovieWeb]
