Am I just a grump ...

[veronica_rich]

... or do the "official" posters for the upcoming "Pirates of the Caribbean" sequel look incredibly cheap for being recycled from the first movie? (I'm sorry, it's time for an editorial. Feel free to skip me over.)

I'm referring to the posters here and here. There's also a Jack character poster that is essentially this one with the POTC2 logo in the corner of it.

I mean, what the hell? Disney can sink a few hundred thousand dollars into the sequels, but couldn't budget something for an artist to design some new promotional materials, and possibly a photographer to help create it?

I would understand if new art concepts were based on those from promotion of the first movie. Universal did it quite cleverly with Back to the Future in posters for both II and III, and look at all the different "Matrix" posters Warner got out of a few basic design ideas - yet, each was distinctive to its own movie. What Disney's doing is just outright, obvious recycling with little to no new material.

I mean, criminey. I know fan artists who probably have charged less than what Disney is used to paying, and would've produced really GOOD work.

Comments

[pseudoblu.livejournal.com]

You are not alone in thinking it.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

Good. I'm not just a bitch, then. (I cross-posted this to http://community.livejournal.com/arrrrr/290438.html - you should hop over and read the discussions there. I think you're the only one HERE!)

[pseudoblu.livejournal.com]

Beyond it looking like fanart (nothing wrong with fanart, I make some myself), I don't like the composition of that official poster. Will looks like his head was pasted on (yay), I don't like that Jack and Elizabeth are both facing left even if their eyes are looking at us, the top looks too crowded, etc.

I swear they already used those pictures in promotion with the first movie. ...Ok, I just looked at the poster for the first movie I got free in the newspaper ages ago and that is the exact same Elizabeth picture. They just retouched it in different ways. And the exact same with Will too! My God! In the first poster they softened under the eyes and here they're emphasizing the darkness and grittiness and they added wisps of hair on his forehead. And I know that Jack picture was used elsewhere too.

Wow. Disney's doing so much merch this time, yet they didn't bother getting new pictures.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

In the first poster they softened under the eyes and here they're emphasizing the darkness and grittiness

My guess is they're going for an older, more brooding, less naive Will - they're going to let the character's looks catch up in age more with the actor's.

On the arrrrr post, someone pointed out these may be fake posters Disney is circulating to throw off the fans so as not to leak too many spoilers ahead of time. I don't know that I've seen that done before - then again, for that reason, it *could* be true. Sort of guerilla marketing, stirring up the old fans without giving too much away too early ...