Paramount is usually smart and savvy in their releases of animated art-house films, as they showed last winter when Charlie Kaufman’s Anomolisa debuted just in time for maximum Oscar chatter. But with the highly anticipated The Little Prince, based off the French story of a child who befriends a pilot, Paramount weirdly dropped the ball without any warning of why or what their thought process was. After removing the film from their distribution schedule just a week before it was expected to land in select theaters without rhyme or reason, Paramount left the movie to be snapped up by another studio or distribution.
Finally, someone else stepped up to the plate so that U.S. audiences can eventually see the stunning animated visuals that people have been clamoring for since the trailer first premiered. Netflix presumably sees potential in the film based on not only fan fervor but the $81 million it has already grossed internationally since its debut at Cannes last year. The chance that as many people will watch the movie on Netflix as have watched the trailer (which has 3 million views and counting) is doubtful, but as the platform continues to branch out with the acquisition of more and more critically acclaimed films these pickups are unlikely to slow down. Paramount may have fallen asleep at the wheel with this decision, but thankfully Netflix was right there to pick up the slack.
(Via Entertainment Weekly)
