BOQB: “Leap!” — What’s the deal with this film, anyway?

TC Kirkham
Jul 28, 2017 · 4 min read

Is Harvey Scissorhands at it again?

The Weinstein Company bought the French Canadian/US animated co-production “Leap!” last year, after it was shopped to distributors. When he picked it up, it was scheduled for a US release in April. Then suddenly, the release date was pushed back to Labor Day weekend, and it was noted at that time that Nat Wolff would redo the voice of the male lead, which had previously been voiced by Valerian star Dane D

eHaan.

The first trailer came out in early spring, and emphasized the equal storylines of the two orphan kids in the film: Felicie, a would be ballerina, and Victor, a would-be inventor.

Two weeks ago, the trailer we’d been seeing for months at our local Showcase Cinemas disappeared, and was replaced by a new one which puts almost the full emphasis on Felicie and her dreams of becoming a dancer — Victor is almost nowhere to be seen, barely visible at all, whereas previously he had more or less shared equal time with Felicie.

So what happened? And why did it move up a week, from Labor Day weekend to August 25th?

Very curious. And making me interested in seeing the original cut of the film released in the UK last year, so I can compare it. I have a few questions that I think need answered.

1) Why was Dane DeHaan replaced by Nat Wolff for apparently ONLY the US release of the film? DeHaan’s performance was apparently good enough for the rest of the English speaking world…

2) Did a test screening audience reject the film as originally presented, prompting Harvey to go into his known scissorhands mode and recut the film with it’s female lead more prominent? Or was the first trailer misleading, and Victor really doesn’t have the larger role he was portrayed as having in the first trailer?

3) Why move the film up a week from It’s planned date after moving it to several months from it’s initially scheduled premiere in April 2017? It couldn’t wait a week longer?

Seriously, I have a legitimate reason for asking these questions and for being worried about the fate of “Leap!” — because Weinstein has a less than stellar reputation for skewering animated films.

Think “Underdogs”.

Underdogs” was a 2013 animated soccer/foosball comedy from Argentina; the the most expensive film ever made in that country up to that point in time, and the most expensive animated film ever made in Latin America. Its $21 million production price tag was seen as justified when the opening of the film became the biggest opening weekend in Argentine history.

Weinstein snapped it up in 2014 for a North American release. Then Sir Scissorhands went nuts trying to make the film compatible (as he no doubt saw it) for an American audience. Release dates were scheduled, and changed, and changed again, an US only dub was produced with Nichollas Hoult, Bella Thorne, Katie Holmes, Ariane Grande, Taran Killam, John Leguizamo, Shawn Mendes, and Matthew Morrison. And STILL the film kept getting bumped around. And just ONE WEEK before it’s schedule release in mid-August 2015, it was yanked again. And wasn’t heard from again. Despite millions of dollars spent, and multiple trailers ordered and screened in theatres over the eighteen months prior to the scheduled release, the film vanished from theatrical promotion. It was finally quietly released on DVD in the US on July 19 2016. It debuted on Netflix shortly thereafter.

It was probably for the best — according to people who have spoken with several entertainment news outlets online and on TV, the company would have been better off releasing the film wide in the US for the Spanish-speaking market, as what was originally a public hit in Argentina would have played well to Latino audiences here. It had even received mostly favorable reviews when released throughout Latin America. Insiders have said that what was left of the film following a massive cut and paste job on the film — one which supposedly completely changed the context and story of the original film — was an incomprehensible and unwatchable mess.

“Leap!” looks like a sweet, charming film, and has some great voice people behind it. Let’s hope Our Man Harvey isn’t going to pull an “Underdogs” with it, and that it will still be as entertaining as it looked in the first trailer. When it comes to Harvey Scissorhands, one can only hope….:-)

Check out the two vastly different “Leap!” Trailers below, and see for yourself.


Originally published at eCinemaOne.

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