Is The Weinstein Company the Worst Animation Distributor?

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Last year, I wrote an editorial calling out Lionsgate as the worst animation distributors in Hollywood. I still stand by that opinion that they are one of, if not the worst distributors of the animated film scene. Lionsgate is to animation distribution as Central Park Media was to anime distribution, where they chose quantity over quality, and forever stained their reputation. Sure, both companies might have a bright spot here and there, but 99.9% of the time, there was just pure garbage in their library. However, I have come to realize that there are plenty of bad animation distributors that are terrible in many different ways. Like I said above, Lionsgate is bad because they choose to bring over whatever, without thinking that it might look questionable that they bring over low-budget title after low-budget title without thinking if it’s of any high quality. Today though, we are looking at The Weinstein Company.



While they may have plenty of high quality live-action films under their belt like Lionsgate does, their presence in the animation scene can be seen as just as bad as Lionsgate, or by some people worse. And to be honest, I agree. Let’s talk about what makes them one of the worst distributors of animated films.



Since I can’t just retread comparing them to GKids once again, let’s take a look at their history of distributing animated films. Luckily, they have a much smaller library of films than Lionsgate, since they didn’t go for the “let’s buy any cheap animated film we can and shove a bunch of YouTube stars and C list celebrities into them” strategy. Unfortunately, what they have chosen for their small lineup of animated features doesn’t at all scream of quality. Instead of going the route of GKids or Shout! Factory by choosing pristine titles that deserve it, The Weinstein Company does hand-pick their titles, but I wouldn’t call them classics. Their lineup of titles include The Magical Roundabout, or as it’s also known as Doogal, Underdogs, the upcoming Leap!, Arthur and the Land of the Invisibles, Hoodwinked, Hoodwinked Too: Hood vs. Evil, TMNT, and Escape from Planet Earth. Yeah, that’s not a stellar lineup. Sure, you could argue films like Hoodwinked, at the very least, had a style and personality to it, and Azur & Asmar: The Prince’s Quest is visually beautiful, but that doesn’t really help or save their lineup.



So, like a lot of companies, they distributed some terrible movies, but what makes them exactly the worst? I’m sure you guys are wondering that, since I haven’t really brought that up. Well, if you look at the reviews for Underdogs, Escape from Planet Earth, Doogal, and Arthur, you see that they are some of the worst reviewed films, in terms of animation. What exactly happened? The Weinsteins have a very notorious reputation of editing, cutting out, and recasting the films they bring over. You know all of those obnoxious pop culture references, pointless celebrities, and bad jokes in Doogal? Yeah, the original didn’t have a lot of them. Does Arthur and the Land of the Invisibles seem very choppy and annoying? The original wasn’t like that. Why does Leap! have recasted actors for minor or lead roles? Are you catching what I’m throwing right now? Instead of spending money and marketing on the film itself, they tend to hire a bunch of celebrities to redub lines, voice characters who didn’t talk in the original, and taking out any of the charm the original films may have had. It’s like they really didn’t care what they were doing, spent money for changes that didn’t need to be made, and then realized that they invested a bunch of cash into these films, knowing they will not make it back.



That’s probably the worst part. I always think that they realize that they have yet another project that will not be reviewed well, won’t make them money, and secretly toss it into release date limbo, and then quietly release it onto Netflix without anyone knowing. Luckily, I am one of those people that find out about films like the ones they release, and make sure to remind people that they chose to distribute these films. Why would they go through the trouble of getting the rights, spending money on unnecessary changes, and then pull out and quietly take the loss?



What would I change about their tactics? I would change everything. If you are going to bring over animated films, bring over ones people actually want to watch. If the film already has an English dub, then don’t recast and waste more money on new actors. If you think about cutting and editing a film for some unknown reason, then take Hayao Miyazaki’s advice when you thought about cutting and editing Princess Mononoke, and don’t. If you honestly don’t want to put it in theaters because it will make you look bad and it won’t perform well, then put it straight to DVD, and people will instantly forget about it. That way, you don’t set off a bunch of red flags and alarm sounds, when you keep moving release dates for the movie. Also, if they aren’t so committed to helping get animation from overseas here in the states, then why bother? Why not just focus on the films you obviously put more effort put into them? It’s obvious that they have never made money on their animated films.



So, is The Weinstein Company the worst animation distributor? Well, they are really bad, but for entirely different reasons than Lionsgate or Open Road Films. While Lionsgate is bad because they will literally bring over or pick up anything, The Weinstein Company is bad because they will pick up a film, do an insane amount of editing, recasting, redubbing, and so forth to films that end up as worse for wear. Instead of picking the right projects like Sony Pictures Classics and GKids, they pick up films that are already middle-of-the-road or bottom-of-the-barrel, and make them worse. I think the only film I can suggest seeing from their library of animation is Azur & Asmar, but be prepared to watch it in French, and look at some stiff animation. Even then, GKids helped with that film, so I wouldn’t really call it a Weinstein Company film. Who knows how they will handle Leap!, but I am sure if you don’t see it get even a limited release, then they don’t care, and are, once again, ashamed that they put money into such a terrible movie.