What Did the Original PIXELS Creator Think of the Movie?


Pixels was a very, very cool idea. 80’s video game characters wreaking havoc on the world? That’s just a fun summer blockbuster waiting to happen. Unfortunately, it’s still waiting. With a Rotten Tomatoes score of 19%, bad word of mouth and middling box office returns, the movie is set to be a dud which is a tremendous shame. Then again, what more can you expect of Adam Sandler?

However, fret not. There is still a very good version of the movie out there available to rewatch again and again – the original. You see, the film is based on a 2010 short by French filmmaker Patrick Jean that went on to attract the attention of several major Hollywood studios before it ended up in the grimy hands of Sony and Sandler. Speaking with Business Insider, Jean lifted the lid on his original deal with the studio as well as revealing his thoughts on the new movie. Spoiler: he’s pretty much in the same boat as the rest of us.

pixels original short donkey kong

Not quite as good looking as the new movie’s Donkey Kong but still pretty hot

“I think the movie is not perfect, but I like it. I feel the second half of the movie could have been better. But I know they had budget issues, they had to cut some stuff. It’s a light action comedy movie and that’s what we wanted to do in the first place.”

It sounds as if Jean is being polite. He states in the article that he was an executive producer on the film and was often on set so he will have a good idea of the process that went into it and some respect for those involved. It’s a tough job to make a movie, but given Sandler’s track record and the extremely unfavourable reviews it’s hard to imagine any major effort went into it. I wouldn’t want to badmouth the movie if I were him but at least he’s willing to come out and admit that it’s not perfect.

UPDATE: in a somewhat awkward turn of events, it turns out that he did like the movie! Take a look down to the comments section where Jean actually commented to say that he loved the movie. We may have not been particularly favourable towards Pixels but we’re not people who back down when called out, so let it hereby be said that UTF was wrong and Jean was right. Wait, the press took words out of context? But that never happens! Original article is as follows…

Fucking up movies like Pixels is often much worse than fucking up your average franchise movie or adaptation. For example, both entries in The Amazing Spider-Man franchise were terrible. While it’s generally considered lazy, the option is there to simply reboot and try again because Spider-Man is a massive intellectual property – which is what’s happening. With this, it isn’t based on a comic, TV show, old 80’s movie, board game or video game but rather a short film, now probably owned by Sony. They aren’t going to repeatedly waste hundreds of millions of dollars rebooting this one movie to try and get it right, meaning that we’re just going to be left with this piece of crap. It’s such a unique and awesome concept that could have turned out great but instead it seems like standard Adam Sandler fare – i.e. fucking terrible. It’s so important to get stuff like this right, because you could end up with a classic on your hands.

Now, sit back, relax, and enjoy the original and pretty creative Pixels.

Head back to BI for more of the interview with Patrick Jean, including deets on his deal with Sony and what he’s planning on doing next. It’s an interesting read. Meanwhile, Pixels is out now, but that’s far less interesting. You can check out our review of the movie here, in which the overall bad-ness I proclaimed here is backed up quite a bit.

pixels movie