When Neopets’ Adam first asked the members of PPT Forum what they thought of the possibility of a Neopets movie, most if not all of us, wanted to believe it was a joke while knowing in the back of our minds that it was an all too real possibility, especially more so considering Doug Dohring, the company which acquired Neopets in it’s ‘infancy’ had expressed his intent to bring Neopets into an offline medium.
One of the most compelling arguments against a Neopets movie draws analogies between the Pokemon fad. Many gamers fear that once Neopets breaks into the movie medium, it will suffer the same fate such Pokemon. Pokemon arguably lost its appeal once it moved into the movie and merchandising market. People claimed to be over exposed to the Pokemania phenomenon. Additionally, many of the merchandising and movies which was contingent on the original Pokemon concept seemed to be poorly thought out, poorly executed and poorly designed. The perception of poor quality and inflated prices all for the quick buck that many great things seem to eventually entail, turned consumers off and Pokemon spectacularly became a thing of the past as quick as it had ascended into public recognition.
History would suggest that that could be an all-too-real possibility for Neopets. I question however if Neopets could possess the initiative and means to essentially break the mold. In other words, will Neopets change the public perception that all they’re really doing is selling out? I believe that if Neopets created an actual plot for the movie, added interesting characters and had a good dose of humor (think Finding Nemo and The Incredibles), Neopets could have the potential to do very well. Additionally, I think that if Neopets focuses less on depending on it’s existing users to watch the movie and actually made the movie under the impression that no one knows about the concept, the overall quality of the movie will not only be greater but cater to all people. Essentially, that the movie will actually be a movie and not a corporate sellout that attempts to milk the money out of its current local consumers.
Will the Neopets corporation learn from the mistakes of the past? I guess we’ll see! – Yukio