Blog #1 The Parent Trap

In todays time The Parent Trap is a movie known and enjoyed by many people; however, one of its first entrances into society was done through the use of its movie poster. Not knowing the popularity to come, the movie poster was an essential aspect to creating success for the movie. Though at first glance the movie poster doesn’t look like much, each detail consists of ethos, logos, or pathos to correctly depict the movie genre as well as details to expect in the movie.

Immediately glancing at the poster the audience notices two redheaded, pre-teen girls with mischievous smirks on their faces. While the smirks may not be noticeable right off the bat, the total package of the placement of their hands combined with their playful smiles, created through pathos, shows that this movie will be good-humored with some drama. Adding to this good-humored theme, the addition of the snapshot from a scene in the movie placed strategically above the girls showing a moment of hugging between mother and daughter and laughter between father and daughter helps to prove that it is a family friendly movie. By the picture being an exact moment from the movie the viewer receives logos on the setting and pathos with the characters. It as imperative for the branding of this movie that the twins as well as their parents were shown in the movie poster to get away from the perception that the movie is just about the girls. The point of the movie is for the girls to bring their parents back together and if the poster just showed the girls that plot wouldn’t match. Another form of pathos occurs by simply looking at the title; the title itself is written in a playful style of font constructing the child likeness for the film. The combination of these aspects helps to give the audience an emotional connection that the movie will be a comedic, family friendly, drama.

Forming this emotional connection as well as creating logos was done by showing on the movie poster that this is a Walt Disney Pictures movie. Disney has a reputation for children movies so the branding of their name on the front proved that this movie will be appropriate and they are proud of what it represents for their company. Now a certain audience is targeted to view this movie, that of families, but it doesn’t specify to the extent where people such as teens and young adults would be disinterested. This could be attributed to the fact that Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson are main characters in the movie and shown in the movie poster. Both actors are known by adults due to their appearances in movies aiming at adult comedy and drama such as The Big Easy and Something to Talk About starring Dennis and A Month in the Country and The Favour, the Watch and the Very Big Fish starring Natasha. These actors may also draw people in to see the movie based on fans that want to watch due to the attraction of the actors. Both Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson are attractive to many people and the build up of knowing there is a potential love affair between the two reels people in.

 Each small detail contributing to what makes up this movie poster is done to lure people in to see the movie. The designer of the poster took into consideration all parts of the movie and added it in in some way to best depict what to expect when the audience goes to see the movie. Through the use of logos, pathos, and ethos audience members were able to get an idea of what to expect in the film.