TBT: The art of a teaser trailer

Posted Thursday, May 15, 2014 at 4:59 PM Central

by John Couture

Rejected teaser ad idea for Cinderella

I could go on and on about trailers and my belief that they should be works of art, but I've gone over that time and time again. And besides, today's offerings more often ressemble something that you'd fine on the floor of a horse's stall than a Mona Lisa.

And don't even get me started on the teaser trailer. In concept, it's a trailer for a trailer. A glimpse, if you will of what is to come. At the very least it should pique your interest in the film, at its best a teaser trailer will leave with trepidation at having to wait a year or more to see the film that was just advertised.

Today, we got what my colleague Tim described might be the worst teaser trailer ever released for the live-action Cinderella coming out next March. I have to agree with him that Disney probably demanded to have something up in front of Maleficent and didn't care what that was.

Sadly, it might just backfire as this teaser does nothing for me. Not only that, but I had not clue what I was seeing for the first half and even when it was done I was left trying to rationalize how they came about with this as the first look at the film. But don't take my word for it, check it out yourself.

If Walt Disney were alive, he'd have someone's head for this. I mean, afterall he had plenty of experience with teaser trailers. Check out this one from the original 1937 animated version of Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs.

Heck even the original teaser trailer for the 1950 animated version was better than the one released today.

Of course, not all teaser trailers are meant to be enjoyed beyond that singular moment in time. For instance, in 1977, Warner Bros. released this simple cast teaser for Superman: The Movie simply to reassure audiences that this much delayed film was still on its way. Of course today, all they have to do is tweet a single picture.

Given all of the TBT love in this story, the final teaser trailer is my favorite of all time. It's for the film The Dark Knight and it introduced us to the main villain through Heath Ledger's iconic voice.