"Iron Man" -- Big screen cartoon heroes

Iron Man, emerges as the latest cartoon here to step on to the big screen. Within five days of the film's release on April 30th, Jon Favreau's latest effort earned an amazing world wide box office return of 201 million dollars. That return exceeded the highest expectations for the film. The Iron Man craze brewed up another fever for cartoon heroes in China. In our "Spotlight" today, we look at all those fictional big screen heroes that sworn to uphold the right and combat the force of evil.

Robert Downey Junior plays the title role. Jon Favreau is the director of "Iron Man". Even the pickiest movie critics have sung praises to the pair. Among the nearly two hundred reviews on the Rotten Tomato website, a movie data base portal, "Iron Man"'s earned an extremely high rating -- 94 percent. The Iron Man, Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr, is a millionaire. He's an expert on advanced weapons. He puts together a suit of armor which affords him supernatural powers. With the help of his assistants, Stark vows to protect the world as Iron Man.

Over the years big screen cartoon heroes have established a solid fan base in China. The influence began in 2002, when Spiderman, the Movie was released in China. Superman and Batman may have been household names in China. Spiderman was far from well known. But Spiderman started a trend toward animated films in the Chinese domestic market. Box office returns for the Spiderman trilogy show an impressive upward spiral. While the first instalment earned 41 million Yuan, the third took in a box office of 146 million Yuan.

Apart from Spiderman, one whole group of animation action heroes has captured Chinese movie audiences --- the Transformers. These automobiles-turned-robots were once extremely popular among the generations born in the 1970s and early 80s in China. Transformer enthusiasts of that era are grown-ups now, but they are a driving force in the current popularity of the Transformers. The chance to see their childhood heroes on the silver screen was, very simply, an opportunity not to be missed by fans from years gone by.

"Transformers" was released in China on July the 11th, 2007. It was the busy season in the movie industry. "Spiderman 3" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: At the World's End" were screening across the country. But "Transformers" became the eventual winner, with a robust box office of nearly 280 million Yuan. That's about 40 million US dollars.

Not all cartoon heroes fare so well on screen. 2003 brought, "Hulk". It was directed by Oscar winner Ang Lee. But the film proved a disappointment, earning only 8 million yuan or around one million US dollars in China.

"Batman Returns", released in 2005, won the acclaim of critics worldwide. But in China, it was something of a "flop" earning only 9 million Yuan, or under 1.3 million US dollars.

If cool audience response derives from lack of familiarity with the cartoon hero, the failure of Superman in China must be an anomaly. The Superman animation was met, initially with an enthusiastic response. But it failed to climb above number 5, among all the foreign flicks released that year in China. Superman earned a disappointing 62 million yuan, or about 9 million U.S. dollars at the Chinese box office. Probably Superman's fan base is rooted among people who are middle aged, and have not been swept up in the theatre going trend.

Chinese movie fans were able to see "Iron Man" two days earlier than their American counterparts. It's still too early to judge the film on the basis of box office returns. Iron Man is far less famous than his fellows, like Batman, Superman and Spiderman. But one thing is certain -- cartoon heroes continue to summon their magic, ever vigilant, ready to move swiftly against the forces of evil.

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