The excitement towards the July launch of Mamma Mia! The Movie has already started. With the launch of the “theatrical” trailers to coincide the previously issued “teaser” trailers, the longer trailers offer a better description of the plot of the movie. And while those who have seen the musical know that the plot is truly a light device to get you from song to song and feel like you’ve gotten a story along the way, the trailers pretty much sum up the movie pretty much so all you’re really doing when you set foot in the theater is insert ABBA songs into the plot you were told in the trailer and a good time is had by all.

While that may sound rather mean to describe it, the simple truth is the show is complete bubblegum that gets you from the start of the play to the end with a wonderful soundtrack that is cleverly crafted to deliver those songs leaving you entertained. The music is the highlight and that’s how it should be. Without the songs, there is no musical or reason to craft such a plot.

Now the movie has the job of transferring the excitement of the stage show to the big screen. And it has to do it without an intermission and in less time. So how do you get it in and make it exciting? Well for starters, build a great cast. Here the movie versions offers several name stars that are worthy in their own right of your money at the box office this July. Meryl Streep is definitely the big draw, and she’s paired up with former James Bond, Pierce Brosnan, as well as the wonderfully talented, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Amanda Seyfried, and Dominic Cooper. All are great, not to mention Meryl, Amanda, and the three dads have all been transformed into individual character posters for the promotion of the film (See ABBAMAIL’s “Mamma Mia! The Movie” section for a look at all the posters made public to date). Having seen a test screening, this cast not only looks great on film, but will also sound great once on the film’s soundtrack. Pierce Brosnan is probably the weakest of the leads for singing ability, but he’s boldly gone where no one would expect to find a former 007’s ­ a movie musical!!

Next expand on the limitations of the stage musical, with locations! The play is set on a Greek Island, so a large portion of the scenes near water are on a Greek Island. No need for a dock to lift from the stage, there’s one in the water. And the setting of Donna’s Taverna, no need for two moveable wall pieces that substitute for the walls of the entire island. Here there are real buildings to go in and out of. The sets are all filled with props that are authentic to the type of rooms they are, without the need of being able to move them in place and off stage in seconds. No imagination necessary. If flash backs are needed or sequences where there’s a slight departure from reality, well that’s covered too after all it is a movie. And while we’re at it, let’s axe a couple of songs that slow down the stage show or don’t make sense to include in the movie version and move a couple of songs to different points in the movie. And for good measure, throw in a cameo appearance from both Benny Andersson, and Björn Ulvaeus.

Then it’s time to test screen the movie, fortunately, the first screening was in San Diego, and I got a chance to attend it. (See ABBAMAIL’s “Mamma Mia! The Movie” section for my detailed review of the movie, however, be forewarned it’s loaded with spoilers so you may wish to skip it if you wish to be surprised by the movie.) The audience’s reaction was great, they seemed to really enjoy the movie. The “Dancing Queen” section which comes just like in the play even had the audience I saw it with applauding the screen and again when the movie came to an end. I thought it was well put together and pretty much screen ready, just needing to give the rough cut the necessary gloss over to make it perfect for the final version. I’m sure more screenings have been taking place and hopefully the reaction is similar to what I saw in the San Diego screening, in which case, I think the movie is going to be a hit with audiences in July.

Next, we need to line up the promotion sponsors. As reported on ABBAMAIL, the Odeon theatre in London’s Leicester Square is selling preview seats to a week long set of screenings before the movie has a wide release. US Cosmetics company, Ponds, as the “Exclusive Skincare Sponsor” of the movie, is in the midst of a contest asking women to form trios like Donna and the Dynamos and sing Karaoke versions of either “Dancing Queen” or “Mamma Mia” and video tape the process for a contest where the winning trio will win a trip to the London premiere. I’m sure many more companies will be coming out of the woodwork closer to the premiere of the movie to tie in with sponsorship deals and contests relating to the movie. I couldn’t even guess at this point which fast food chain will be the exclusive fast food partner for the movie and probably have their series of collectable plastic beverage cups to tie in to the movie. (Do we really want to “Mamma Mia! Size” our combo meals?) Fortunately, from the test screening I saw, product placement was practically non-existent in the film (aside from a lot of ABBA music that is.)

Universal has also launched a “Mamma Mia! The Movie” social networking site. I’m sure Universal is hoping to build on the buzz and try and get people talking together online to generate further excitement while making it a place where they can control content and offer downloadable items like photos and wallpapers to make it feel exclusive. I’m sure the site will be more a of use to a non-ABBA fan since ABBAMAIL’s forum is certainly an already existing forum. Not to mention, the ABBAMAIL’s mailing list has already been hotly passing on every detail about the film from all parts of the world as information hits the public. Even my ability to attend the San Diego test screening arose from it being a topic on the mailing list.

In any case, the wheels to promote the film are already in motion, and it only starts to pick up steam from here until it culminates with the premiere in July. If anything, “Mamma Mia! The Movie” is serving to be a much needed boost to making 2008 another great year to be an ABBA fan and I certainly appreciate what it’s doing to make me want to enjoy my ABBA collection a bit more than usual this year.

Ryan