Movie Website Reviews for Weekend of January 11, 2008
January 12, 2008
We have twice as many sites as last week, but the real improvement is with the quality at the top. The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movies - Official Site - has an excellent mix of regular features, extras, and style and is the clear winner of the Weekly Website Award.
The Business of Being Born - Official Site
First Sunday - Official Site
In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale - Official Site
Naming Number 2 a.k.a. No. 2 - Official Site
The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movies - Official Site
Woman on the Beach - No Official Site
There's a lot more polish on this site than most documentary sites have, but this polish doesn't translate into style. There is a lot of information, on the other hand, including a ton of press.
All the usual features are on the flash site, while the opening site has six clips and a featurette on the red carpet premiere. With the audio clips, it is enough to not seem boring, but not enough to stand out.
The site is certainly more entertaining that the movie, but sadly the site is merely average. Just the basics with nothing to set it apart. The site looks good, but has no depth.
The site says, "Coming this summer", so either this site or ours has some wrong information. As for the site, it just has the very basics (synopsis, bios, image gallery, and trailer), with nothing to set it apart.
Now this is something better. This site has all of the usual features for a movie site including synopsis, cast bios, production notes, images, trailers, as well as a good mixture of extras. Under Vidoes, you can find A Look Inside, which is a pop-up music video for a parody of Rock Lobster. (On a side note, how many members of the target audience will know who the B-52s are? For that matter, how many of their parents will know?) Under Talk Like a Pirate you can hear several pirate phrases like "Arg!" and if you listen to them all, you can print out a Pirate Certificate. Meet the Veggies has character bios, but not just the bios, as there is a video clip and three audio clips for each one. Finally, there are three games. Each is very simple to play, but still fun, and if you complete them, you get to download wallpaper, watch a clip, etc. Games with rewards! It's such a simple concept, but most sites with games don't have anything to entice you to play them. Add in the clips used as animated intros, the songs used in the background, and even the mouse over sound and animation (particularly the attack cheese), and this is a great site. (My only complaint is with the clips, which are still marked coming soon. However with all of the other clips, this is hardly a serious problem.) Easily the best site on this week's list and the winner of the Bouffant Weekly Website Award.
No site for the North American release, but the original is still around.
Filed under: First Sunday, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, The Business of Being Born, No. 2