Stardust: A Trailer is Born

So I watched the Stardust trailer when it first surfaced a week or two ago, and was kind of underwhelmed. Now granted, my expectations for the movie are quite high given my great affection for the source material, the stellar cast and the championing of the film by Neil Gaiman himself. But the trailer felt kind of ... disjointed. Is it a love story? Is it an adventure? Is it a comedy? Is it a quest? Of course, anyone familiar with the book knows that it's all of these things (and more) --after all, at its core, it's a fairy tale-- but the trailer seemed to be almost schizophrenic with its flurry of flash-cuts.

Since some of you might not have yet seen the trailer yet, allow me to help fix that now, and then let's talk some more when you're done viewing, OK?

Having now watched the trailer again in preparation of writing this post, I find i like it more than I did the first time, but I still don't think I'd necessarily want to see this movie if I didn't already know I want to see this movie. I also see a certain Princess Bride influence that I don't recall having caught the first time ... which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but isn't necessarily a good thing either, if you know what I mean.

Off I went to hit Neil Gaiman's online journal to see what the man himself had to say about the trailer, and I'm happy to report that I'm feeling a good bit heartened as a result of having read his thoughts, which include the following:

I like the trailer. I've been shown a lot of other trailers for Stardust in the last six months, and was astonished to see how much they varied and the impression they seemed to give, and I realised how close the recut trailers for The Shining and The Parent Trap and Mary Poppins were to the truth. Trailers and films only bear a tangential relationship to each other. (Take a look at the three links above if you doubt this.)

And so it would seem that I've come full-circle in just a few short paragraphs, and I'm firmly back to looking forward to the August 10th release date of Stardust.

How about you?