Introduction
Hello, adventurers! Blaziker is back for another animation adventure, but this time, rather than reviewing an animated movie, I thought it would be interesting to explore something related to animation, and that is, the box office.
The animation community was buzzing over Pixar’s latest movie, Lightyear, being considered a failure. It started out pretty ok, raking US$51 million at the North American box office in its opening weekend, but by the second week by a whopping 61% to only US$18 million on its second weekend, according to Box Office Mojo.
As of now, their combined global box office total stands at around US$158 million, which would make it the second highest grossing animated movie of 2022 behind rival DreamWorks’ The Bad Guys. However, with the release of Minions: The Rise of Gru, expect Lightyear to tumble downwards in the pecking order until its Disney Plus release.
However, there is another piece of animation news that was as important, but overshadowed by Lightyear’s underwhelming box office performance so far: the insane popularity of an animated movie Netflix released on 10 June 2022 across selected countries (and in movie theatres in other countries like in Singapore): Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness.
The Context
Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness is the loose adaption of the original limited comic series by Chris Grine about a half-hare, half-chicken hybrid going on an adventure to find the one artefact no one could find: the sacred Hamster of Darkness. This was animated by nWave Studio, the same studio that produced A Turtle’s Tale, Thunder and the House of Magic, The Son of Bigfoot and many more. As such, this was a studio certain animation fans are familiar with.
How insane? Allow me to let the Netflix numbers do the talking, courtesy of Netflix Top 10:
In addition, it did very well in other countries during its theatrical releases. I will just let the box office rankings in my country be the example, courtesy of Cinema Online Singapore (only showing the top 6 of each week):
While Singapore’s IMDA rarely provides actual box office totals per week, the fact that a lesser known, non-major foreign and non-anime animated movie is this high is staggering. Usually, such movies debut at the 9-10th places on their opening weekends and fall off the list during the second. Only two movies with similar backgrounds broke that duck: Dragon Rider in 2021 and Fireheart this year.
The question is: how did a small, non-major animated movie that is also an original animated movie, and with limited advertising from Netflix’s side, swept across Netflix and movie theatres longer than they should? There are three reasons behind its marquee success:
Reasons Behind Chickenhare’s Success
Reason 1: Near-Perfect Release Timing
The first reason that could explain Chickenhare’s success is because of its perfect release timing. While Belgium (where this movie was from), France and some European countries got early releases between January and May, it was during the turn of the summer where Netflix and other distributors struck gold.
Netflix released Chickenhare onto their platform in selected countries (including the United States) on 10 June when the summer holidays begun, with other countries getting Chickenhare in theatres throughout the summer.
In Singapore, Muse (the distribution company for Chickenhare) released it on 2 June 2022 in Golden Village theatres (instead of the usual release in Shaw Theatres via European distributor Charades, who helped with distributing nWave’s previous movies), and the problem was the lack of marketing and promoting from both sides.
It did not matter.
The distributors released Chickenhare at the perfect timing, releasing it when most kids have their weeks off school and have time to relax. One of those relaxing activities included watching movies with family and friends, and given that the summer period is one of the most exciting periods of the film calendar, which was why we saw massive turnout in theatres. In fact, I made a Twitter thread on the Chickenhare turnout here:
Even with high turnout, it would not be that possible if the distributors did not market the movie extensively and that few people would have heard about this movie’s existence. This brings on to reason number 2.
Reason 2: Furry Fandom Popularity
The second reason is due to the popularity among the furry fandom, and no, I am still not a furry.
Having a movie cast of anthropomorphic animals would (naturally) cause a stir among the furry community, especially given its similarities to a certain movie about a female rabbit pursuing her dreams of being a cop in a big city. Hmm…
Anyway, similarities aside, it also helped that the furry community (and some non-furrys) were beginning to simp Meg, the female skunk sidekick as well as even Lapin, Chickenhare’s jailed uncle and the main villain, gets some simps as well. I will admit, the furry community is right when it comes to furry characters.
Thanks to the massive attention from the furry community, their recommendations had provided free marketing for the moviegoers to check out this oddity of a movie and upon its release, positive word-of-mouth spread across social media, resulting in such a high turnout across both Netflix and in theatres.
With that said, just because of the furry popularity, it does not mean a furry-based movie is good. There are some bad furry movies out there, and if the furry community’s near denial of the existence of Arctic Dogs (which I might cover someday, given my expertise in that cold brew) tells us something, it is that the community would more likely promote a furry movie that is at least decent, which brings us to reason number 3.
Reason 3: Simply a Great Animated Movie
Reason number 3 behind the success behind the success of Chickenhare goes down to how good the movie is, quality wise. Sure, nWave may not have produced animated movies on par with the industry’s best, but their movies, especially with House of Magic and The Son of Bigfoot, are much better than first thought. And then, Chickenhare smashed those expectations.
You can check out my review on Letterboxd, which I quoted this:
There’s a reason why I support the small to mid-budget animation studios and movies, and it’s the same way I look at foreign movies: once you go pass the mainstream animation by the likes of Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks, Illumination and other mainstream studios, you will discover that there is a whole different world of animation outside of North America that few ventured into.
I will cover the movie as part of part 2 of my 2022 Animated Movies Rundown (Click here for Part 1).
I will admit, I am quite lenient towards these small, foreign-made animated movies, but that is because I always give such movies a fair chance. As of now, it is still the highest rated nWave animated movie, as you will see below:
Here are some snippets from some reviews. Note that very few major news outlets reviewed the movie, so I had to rely on other sources:
Netflix’s animated children’s movies run the gamut in quality, but Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness is certainly among the better endeavours. It’s somewhat simplistic in its conceit, but its animation is spectacular and as a whole, it’s quite fun.
Jason Flatt, But Why Tho?
There is nothing particularly creative or unique about this production. The story is derivative, the characters are simple, and the animation generic. That said, it’s a perfectly serviceable piece of children’s entertainment that carries a great message, and it’s not so offensively bad that parents will want to rip their ‘hare’ out.
Savannah Lee, Parent Previews
It’s a decent animated film, better than some of these smaller animated Netflix films that have released (onto Netflix) over the last couple of years… It’s fun, (with) fun characters, but a little bit disappointed in some of the adventure moments.
Justin Watches Movies
Their reviews may not be as glowing as mine, but at the end of the day, there was some positive response towards Chickenhare from the animation community. This caused the word of mouth to the internet and resulted in curious onlookers checking out the movie, whether on Netflix or in theatres, resulting in a high turnout.
Conclusion
Regardless of the reasons, the popularity Chickenhare enjoyed should be something Netflix and other distributors should take note of. Small, foreign animated movies usually suffered from a long-time negative stigma because of previous bad animated movies, but having watch loads of them, I can assure you will enjoy some of them once you go past this stigma.
Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness may be yet another small, foreign made animated movie Netflix shoved onto their service, but it is one of the best small animated movies of the year so far. Sure, the story plays it safe, but it provides a great narrative of being afraid to showcase who you are, with way better animation than your typical small animated movie and memorable characters with complementary dynamics. This movie is like Chickenhare himself: it may look weird, but after you go past the stereotypes, it is truly spectacular how such an underdog of a movie leaves a lasting impression.
(I know this is not an actual review of Chickenhare, but it would be something I say in the review itself)
If your country’s Netflix has Chickenhare, or for the Spanish and Portuguese readers who will get it in theatres this August, please go give Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness a chance. I will assure you, it is better than what you will expect from a small Netflix animated movie.
Thank you so much for reading, and I see you on the next animation adventure. Until then, k thanks bye!
