Cutting a trailer is an art form. Editors have to take disparate bits of film given to them by the production company and turn it into 30 seconds-to-two minutes of marketing gold. The tone of a trailer can make or break audience interest. But grabbing the attention of a distracted populace with too many entertainment options can mean fudging the details a bit. Whether it’s using footage that will never see the light of day, or playing sleight of hand with the attitude of the film, trailers can hide flaws or change the mood of the entire project.
Case in point: CineFix recently took Disney’s Academy Award-winning animated feature Zootopia and recut it as a gritty crime-thriller. Instead of a candy-colored metropolis populated by sloths running the DMV with simmering racial prejudice hiding just beneath the surface, in the hands of CineFix editors, the family film is transformed into seedy world full of gangsters and corruption. Honestly? All the ingredients for this take on Zootopia are present in the Disney version. There’s a criminal underground, corrupt politicians, illegal drugs, unlawful conviction, and a patsy to take the fall. All CineFix did was strip out the all-ages elements to make a version that totally looks like something I’d pay good money to see.
[Via Mashable]