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Mamma Mia! Movie Trailers

The first look at the new movie version of Mamma Mia! have recently hit the world wide web giving a small taste what is to come in July of this year. There are two versions of the trailer circulating, the one designed for the United States market and one for the United Kingdom and most likely the rest of the world. While both trailers have mostly the same shots in them at least initially, there are some differences that make each one slightly better than the other in different ways.

The US trailer excels in glamour shots of the principle stars making sure that Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Amanda Seyfried, Colin Firth, and Dominic Cooper all look their best as their names and faces hit the screen. Another area the US trailer beats the pants off the UK trailer is the text screens which use the same Mamma Mia font which has been animated so that it appears that there is blue water shimming inside each letter before the Mamma Mia title is revealed over a full screen blue water background and the logo of the show appears to come towards the viewer by becoming larger. The text is the only hint of the plot for the movie in the US version of the trailer. Very little dialogue is incorporated in this version and all of the visual elements seem to be deliberately selected to hide the fact this is a movie musical. The only time any character is shown singing, it's Meryl Streep and it's only the words "Mamma Mia" otherwise never do you see any of the characters singing to match the music playing. There are a number of shots of people dancing but it all looks like party situations so it doesn't seem out of place and I suppose to help ditch a little of the "chick flick" label, it seems that only for the US version of the trailer there is a shot from above Amanda Seyfried in a swimsuit coming out of the water to show off her chest.

The UK trailer, which I think overall, is better than the US trailer in that the trailer actually describes the plot and includes several dialogue scenes to hint at the humor and advance the plot so that you feel like you have an idea of what the show is about. In a way it does provide a great in a nutshell condensing the show into a minute and a half tease that makes you want to see the show. The UK version also doesn't shy away from the fact this is a movie musical. One of the text screen specifically says "From the worldwide smash-hit musical" before you eventually see into Meryl Streep singing a couple of lines from "Mamma Mia" making it very clear that it's Meryl's voice you're hearing singing the title song in the trailer. Another area the trailer excels is that scenes for the trailer are not selected on the basis of how good they make the actors look, they play true to characters. For example the trailer shows the reveal of the character of "Donna" eavesdropping on the potential fathers by falling through the ceiling and landing on a mattress on her backside with legs in the air, not exactly a glamour shot by any stretch of the imagination but definitely a comedic moment for the film, but no where to be found in the US version of the trailer.

However, the UK trailer does falter in comparison to the US trailer in its use of text screens between the scenes from the film. The text comes across as very plain and downright ugly compared to the US version. The lower case lettering that's very plain just doesn't jump off the screen and the only bits of animation are in the background and the text appearing to move closer to the audience. The area where the use of text really comes across as feeling cheap and poorly done is when the actors are showcased. Unlike the US version where the text appears over the image, here split screens are done where the actor appears on one side of the screen and in the other is a very plain background and the actor's name. The order of the cast is also different here, where it runs in the order of Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Julie Waters, and Amanda Seyfried. I can understand the lack of inclusion of Julie Waters in the US version of the trailer as I have no bloody idea who on earth she is, and I'm hoping I'll be suitably impressed when I finally do see the movie this summer. And perhaps that is the reason Dominic Cooper gets no mention in the UK version of the trailer, as he might not be known to UK audiences, but I have no clue as to who he is, so who knows why he rates a credit in the US version.

One thing I am highly disappointed about in both the US and UK trailers, is a lack of a credit for Christine Baranski. She was practically everywhere you looked in the movies and on television a decade ago, but had all but disappeared in the last few years that I find it to be a complete shame she didn't rate a credit in either version of the trailer. She is one of the actors I'm most looking forward to seeing in the movie.

Having seen both trailers I can safely say this is the first thing I've seen in 2007 that has truly gotten me excited about anything having to do with ABBA all year. Shame it had to wait until December to find that excitement. I am very much looking forward to Mamma Mia and despite its going up against the next Batman sequel on its release weekend here in the United States, there's more than enough time for me to see both. And based on the music in the trailers it seems like Mamma Mia will FINALLY have a cast album in English worth buying! Since no proper Broadway cast album was released (which had far singers than the original London cast album) the movie version will be a welcome addition to my collection to replace the dreadful London cast album. Now I just have to find the patience to wait until July.

Ryan