There’s many ways a film can make money. Box office receipts, DVDs, rentals, and first broadcast rights. But the most immediate thing fans of a film can do to support it (in addition to telling their friends to go see it) is to buy up a little merchandise. T-shirts, action figures, the novel version, whatever. But why are there some franchises who insist on providing things nobody wants or has to settle for?
Case and point: How to Train your Dragon. Fun flick, neat characters, and, of course, dragons. The dragon everyone wants seems to be Toothless, a “night fury” who’s disappears against the darkness of a night sky and breaths fire bolts like air-to-air missiles. His head is flat with bright green eyes, resembling (and acting like) a giant winged black cat.
So why is EVERY plush animal at the toy store blue? Or purple? Only the teeny, tiny figurines seems to have access to actual black dye, because the makers of anything bigger than that currently in stores looks nothing like what’s on screen. Is blue supposed to be family friendlier or something? Was there a surplus of blue fur and felt after Lilo and Stitch stopped making cartoons?
To paraphrase Stephen King: “Give was what we want and we’ll go away.”
Kevin A. Ranson : ThinkingSkull.com 