By: Jillian Caforio
Trailers have helped audiences learn about movies for a century. They have set the tone of a movie while also being a sneak peek into the many characters, actions, and themes within the film. The evolution of Disney’s fairytale-based movie trailers are especially interesting as they must draw an audience to a story they may already know, while giving us examples of different film styles as Disney created live action versions of previously animated movies. The early trailers for many of their popular animated fairytales focused more on character introduction and cinematic elements while their later trailers explore inspirational themes. Much more than educating an audience about a movie, the trailer’s main purpose is to generate box office results. A correlation can be drawn directly between a film’s box office results and its trailer’s effectiveness in developing the viewer’s connection to and perception of the characters, the story and message.
Films offer an escape from reality with meaningful messages and rarely break the fourth wall. In Lisa Kernan’s book, Coming Attractions, she delves into the hybrid between advertising and cinema, trailers. Kernan writes, “Trailers, on the other hand, have often spoken to us directly, frequently telling us to SEE! COME! JOIN IN! THRILL TO! . . . , even at times using characters or actors shown looking directly into the camera and at the audience” (Kernan 3). The purpose of the trailer is to bring people to the theater, while providing to a film what a summary would for a book. When the line between advertising and cinema is blurred, trailers can alter an audience’s complete perception of the film itself and as a result, either drive or destroy sales.
Film trailers were created in 1913 by Nilus Granlund, the advertising manager at Marcus Loew. Granlund edited together rehearsal footage from the stage productions at the theater and would air the montage he created to promote the production. Hermen Robbins then took on Granlund’s idea and created the National Screen Service in 1919 that served as a trailer creation company for studios and theaters to outsource their work (Dickey 2015). Some studios and directors then started to create their own trailers. Directors such as Alfred Hitchcock even took on the responsibility of cutting his own trailers together, while Walt Disney Studios decided to create their own trailers as well which gave the studio more influence in choosing what made the final cut.
These trailers frequently provided an overview of the action and characters, while beginning to hint at the messages of the films in the late 20th century. Interestingly enough, “Neither advertising theory nor narrative film theories adequately address what consequences the current ubiquity of the promotional message might hold for contemporary definitions and understandings of moving-image narrative forms” (Kernan 2). As the purpose of a trailer is to bring audiences to the theater, the true message of the film can be often overlooked or disregarded as the action or elements may appear more interesting within a minute long trailer, but in reality, may not be as inspiring to invoke audience members to attend the theater.
As Disney rose to prominence in the mid-1900s, all eyes were on its films and particularly its trailers. Cinderella was one of Disney’s first very popular animated fairytales to hit box office in 1950. It made a total of $96 million in box office sales, adjusted for inflation. This would not be considered a ‘box office smash’ by today’s standards. It used the trailer to help bring people out to see the tale come to life. In focusing so heavily on the tale itself, however, Disney missed the opportunity to highlight the inner messages of the tale. It used quotes like, “two evil stepsisters, three mischievous mice… it’s the love story to end all love stories” (Disney). The more factual approach places the components of the film in front of potential audience members. The trailer is majority surface level and shares each shot almost equally between the characters. The trailer does not highlight Cinderella as the protagonist, forcing the audience to assume she is as the name of the film appears across the screen. The audience struggles to learn about her strong work ethic and immense kindness as the trailer is equally focused on every other character. This marketing choice aimed to bring each person to the theater for whichever character they resonated with the most. The approach, however, takes away from the powerful messages beneath the surface of the story.
Within the first few paragraphs of the Brothers Grimm version of Cinderella, a prior version to Disney’s adaptation, Cinderella is established as immensely hard working and very kind. Grimm writes, “She was always good and said her prayers… From morning until night she had to work hard. Every day, she got up before daybreak to carry the water, start the fire, cook, and wash” (Tatar 148). Not only was Cinderella doing all these chores while being ridiculed by her stepsisters, but she chose to always remain kind to them regardless of their actions. The Brothers Grimm sets the tone for the entire story as one that centers around Cinderella’s kindness and hardworking virtue while the Disney trailer only scratched the surface. While the approach Disney took with their animated film version did not encapsulate these defining characteristics of Cinderella the character, Cinderella the film certainly became one of the most iconic Disney princess films.
As time has progressed and marketing has matured, the surface level strategies have diminished. Trailers have begun to focus more on inspiring audiences with characters that encompass the messages like those found in the Brothers Grimm and within the tale itself. Disney was given a new opportunity to create a trailer with their live action version of Cinderella in 2015. This trailer chose a completely different marketing approach in comparison to the animated version in 1950 that directly corresponded to the shift toward inspiring the potential audience. Although Disney’s 1950 animated film did appear to have good success, in comparison to the live-action film, its box office sales appear significantly smaller. The live-action film made roughly $542 million. While nostalgia cannot be discounted, this drastic box office change was arguably significantly influenced by the trailer, as trailers are the main marketing tactic used to bring the audience back to the theater.
The 2015 trailer begins with the quote, “‘I want to tell you a secret that will see you through all the trials life can offer. Have courage and be kind’” (Disney). Within the first twenty seconds of the trailer, Disney has centralized its tale of Cinderella with a strong message that goes beyond the surface level prince and princess love story. It starts with this strong message that immediately highlights Cinderella as the protagonist in a positive light due to her inner beauty, unlike its push off depiction of her in the 1950 version. It empowers her kindness and courage throughout the different scenes shown of her working very hard with ease as mean and rude statements are thrown at her, ultimately bringing the kind and hardworking characteristics within the tale, similar to the Brothers Grimm depiction, to life. Although the tale is the same as it was in 1950, the trailer causes it to appear as an almost completely new tale. Both trailers brought audiences in to see the films, but it is important to see how the animated trailer did not bring the empowering messages the live action trailer brought to ultimately have a positive impact on its audience, to “have courage and be kind”, within the first twenty seconds. Because the trailer sets the tone for the overall movie and inspires audience members to come back, trailers hold power on the pocketbook. What Disney chose to do with that power changed the entire perception of the characters and the messages within the film.
Beauty and the Beast faced similar decisions when it came to the creation of their trailer launched to represent the animated film in 1991. The film had blockbuster box office sales of $425 million, adjusted for inflation. In this case, Disney chose to highlight the many musical components of the film. Specifically, the film opens with the very popular, “Be our guest, be our guest…” (Disney). The trailer has it followed by Belle’s character singing, “I want adventure in the great wide somewhere” (Disney). The songs continue as the trailer develops and it provides each character a moment in the spotlight. Disney, surprisingly, gives the song Gaston, a twelve second feature compared to Belle’s seven second feature in the beginning of the trailer. By providing every other character nearly equal or more features than the protagonist Belle, Disney sets up an approach to the film that the other characters are of a similar importance and caliber to the protagonist herself. The marketing choice to highlight many songs from the film made for a highly entertaining trailer but provided almost no representation of the deeper messages within the tale and ultimately the film.
The Jeanie-Marie Leprince de Beaumont’s version highlighted the many messages of Beauty and the Beast in its version of the tale prior to Disney’s adaptation. Leprince established Beauty’s kind character within the first few paragraphs and writes, “‘As for Beauty, we are very upset by her misfortune. She’s such a good girl! She speaks so kindly to the poor. She is so sweet and sincere.’ There were a number of gentlemen who would have been happy to marry Beauty, even though she didn’t have a penny” (Tatar 40). Furthermore, within the beginnings of the tale, Leprince has highlighted Beauty’s kind virtue. Her kindness is not only central to her character, but also to the many messages of the tale regarding how import kindness is. In hindsight, Disney may have missed an opportunity for even greater financial success with their lack of attention within the trailer to the key messages presented in its own adaptations and the many versions prior to it.
Similar to Cinderella, Disney was given another chance with their live action execution of the same tale, Beauty and the Beast, in 2017. The box office sales took the world by storm as the film made $1.3 billion. It is no coincidence that this increase was rooted in the changes within marketing. This time around Disney focused predominantly on key messages within the tale. The trailer begins with the Belle’s father saying, “‘My dear Belle, you’re so ahead of your time’” (Disney). This quote is followed by numerous clips of Belle demonstrating her kind heart. She proceeds to read to a child and walks around the town with a smile, brightening everyone’s day. Disney has nearly immediately established that Belle’s kind admirable character will change her life for the better. The trailer sets up the conflict of Belle’s father being held captive by the Beast, but ultimately highlights Belle’s kindness towards the Beast through a shot of her helping him recover from saving her life against a pack of wolves. The audience receives a glimpse of the Beast as a prince at the end of the film, instilling hope onto the viewers. Additionally, Gaston’s character is not highlighted nearly as much as he was in the animated trailer. Gaston’s character is shown looking at himself in the mirror and saying, “‘You are the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen’” (Disney). Disney established Gaston’s arrogance, while not placing his antagonist character at the forefront of the film. This choice ultimately causes Gaston’s arrogance to serve as a direct comparison to the kindness Belle embodies. By focusing more on Belle’s character than the components within the film, Disney was able to highlight the importance of being kind and inspire the viewers to that end before they even stepped foot in the theater to complete their journey.
Trailers have the power to alter and enhance messages that lie within films. While they certainly do offer a sneak peek into a film’s many components, they more impactfully set the tone for the film, one that the director and studio has worked diligently to create. Disney’s animated fairytale trailers for their popular fairytales focused more on surface-level components of the films while the live-action trailers, produced years later, approached the creation of these trailers with a message centered vision. These differences ultimately set different tones for the animation versus live action versions of the same tale. Both styles brought countless audience members to the theater, however, the message-centered approach brought significantly higher box office sales. This success correlates to the focus on positive themes within the trailers that gave the audience members emotionally moving perceptions of the characters grounded in inspirational messaging. There is money in the message.
Work Cited
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“Beauty and the Beast (2017).” Box Office Mojo, IMDbPro, https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt2771200/?ref_=bo_se_r_1.
“Beauty and the Beast (1991) Trailer #1 | Movieclips Classic Trailers.” YouTube, YouTube, 1 Mar. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iurbZwxKFUE.
“Beauty and the Beast – US Official Final Trailer.” YouTube, YouTube, 30 Jan. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3Nl_TCQXuw.
“Cinderella.” Box Office Mojo, IMDbPro, https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0042332/?ref_=bo_se_r_2.
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“Cinderella 1950 Trailer | Disney.” YouTube, YouTube, 31 May 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UNEY2MgY_s.
Dickey, Elizabeth, et al. “A Brief History of Film Trailers, or: Turns out This Post Is Not about Peter Orner.” Michigan Quarterly Review, 1 July 2015, https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/mqr/2015/07/a-brief-history-of-film-teasers-or-turns-out-this-post-is-not-about-peter-orner/#:~:text=Film%20trailers%20were%20conceived%20in,films%20shown%20at%20Loew’s%20theaters.
“Disney’s Cinderella Official US Trailer.” YouTube, YouTube, 19 Nov. 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20DF6U1HcGQ.
Kernan, Lisa. Coming Attractions: Reading American Movie Trailers. University of Texas Press, 2004. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.7560/706002. Accessed 29 Nov. 2022.
Tatar, Maria. The Classic Fairy Tales: Texts, Criticism. W.W. Norton Et Company, 2017.
