Dec 6, 2019

In the year of feature-length animated bombs, "Playmobil: The Movie" may still be the biggest one

With Thanksgiving over and Christmas still some weeks off, the first weekend of December counts as a box-office “dead zone”: a period of typically low theater attendance. It's apt timing for the inauspicious launch of Playmobil: The Movie, which debuts domestically in 2,300 theaters today.

The cg feature is projected to open with around $2-3 million, despite being the weekend's only new wide release. That comes on top of the paltry $12.5 million it has already grossed overseas. These are disastrous numbers for a film that cost $75 million to make. In its third weekend, Frozen 2 is expected to do far better, adding another $30–$40 million to its $300 million domestic cume to date.

The fact that Playmobil has to go up against Frozen 2 is somewhat ironic considering that Playmobil director Lino DiSalvo was the head of animation on the original Frozen and made the leap to directing based in part on the success of that Disney blockbuster.

Playmobil was animated at On Animation Studios in Montreal, Canada. For all that, it's in many ways a European production. The story is based on the eponymous German toyline, historically a major Lego competitor. On Animation is part of the Paris-based company On Kids & Family, and the film was co-financed by French companies Wild Bunch and Pathé, and French producer Dimitri Rassam.

Playmobil was the opening film at this year's Annecy Festival, a choice that was widely criticized by festival attendees and caused large numbers of the audience to leave in the middle of the film.

Production began back in 2015, when the animation world was still reeling from the success of Warner Bros.'s The Lego Movie. Open Road Films was originally due to distribute Playmobil in the U.S., but dropped it (as it did Arctic Dogs) after filing for bankruptcy last year. STX Entertainment then picked it up, but delayed the release again from August 30 to December 6, to avoid a clash with The Angry Birds Movie 2.

By now, the toy-based cg franchise craze triggered by The Lego Movie has somewhat abated. STX learned that the hard way, when its self-produced Uglydolls flopped in May. The Lego Movie's own sequels have fallen short of the original's box office earnings. This trend, as well as the dead zone and the extra squeeze from Frozen 2, may account for Playmobil's dreadful projections.

As well as directing, DiSalvo wrote the story, with Blaise Hemingway, Greg Erb, and Jason Oremland sharing writing credits. The voice cast includes Anya Taylor-Joy, Gabriel Bateman, Jim Gaffigan, Daniel Radcliffe, Adam Lambert, Maddie Taylor, Kenan Thompson, Meghan Trainor, and (once again) DiSalvo.

To add to its woes, Playmobil has gone down badly with critics, many of whom compare it unfavorably with The Lego Movie. At the time of writing, the film has a dismal 20% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Guy Lodge didn't mince his words in Variety:

The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw agreed, awarding the film two stars:

Nell Minow on RogerEbert.com wrote that Playmobil works neither as a film or a commercial, and that its tone is disturbing for its intended audience:

Reviewing the film in the London Evening Standard, where she gave it three stars, Charlotte O'Sullivan found things to like, even while saying that the film would best be appreciated by stupid people: