Not a Review: Shrinking Movies

      I noticed this first in the movie “Up“.

      The first dozen minutes (or thereabouts, the transition is obvious enough) was an amazing story about all that life entails. The good parts, the bad parts. The joy, the pain. And the inevitable.

      The rest of the movie was entertaining enough. But a completely different kind of movie. At least until directly before the credits, where it tied into the beginning again.

      This movie would be a great candidate for being chopped down, and released as a shorter video. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone has already done just that.

      Sure, you can clip and mutilate any movie into being shorter. But that’s not the same as having already established cut points in the finished product. While the hour plus version is nice enough, it doesn’t have the same ‘oomph’ as that first twelve minutes.

      Since then, I don’t recall any other movie having quiet the same chop-ability. Ready to have most of the movie chopped away and be better for it. I’m sure they exist, but I haven’t seen another. Until recently.

      “KPop Demon Hunters” is… a movie. I’m probably far enough outside it’s target demographic that it’s no surprise that I didn’t find it that good. But, like Up, it lends itself to being chopped down to a much sorter length. While still containing all that matters in the larger version. In this case, being shrunk to about nine minutes long.

      Take the “Golden” video (~3 minutes), then the “What It Sounds Like” video (~6 minutes).

      You get the background of the band, at least the parts that matter, the problem they are facing, set to a nice enough song. Then you get them having a big fight with the bad guys, the sudden but inevitable betrayal/noble sacrifice (depending on what side of the fight you are on), all wrapped up in another nice enough song. And you can skip the entire rest of the movie, everything that matters has been covered.

      Yes, I know there are whole genres that take long things and shrink them down (anyone remember CliffsNotes). But this is effectively an ‘official’ shrunk version. Because, sometimes, the whole is less then the sum of a few parts.

In case the embedding above doesn’t work for you, links:
“Golden” – Sony Pictures Animation
“What It Sounds Like” – Netflix Family