Get Ready to Smell What the 'Spy Kids' are Cooking… in Aromascope
Open your nose to a whole new world of smells
Tired of only smelling the person sitting next to you in the movie theater? Well how about catching a whiff of a scratch-and-sniff card with instructions on how to use it explained to you by a talking dog voiced by Ricky Gervais before you watch Spy Kids: All the Time in the World? That's exactly what you're going to get as today Dimension Films announced Spy Kids: All the Time in the World will be presented in 4D with an age-old gimmick called "Aroma-scope" which sounds "pull my finger" disgusting, but is really more harmless and stupid than that.
Here's how it will work:
With each individual admission ticket, kids and parents will also receive an Aromascope card that is free of charge with easy to read numbers outlined. As the numbers flash on the movie screen the audience will rub the corresponding number on their card. When each of the 8 aromas are unleashed you will get to experience a special moment in the film and be transported into scenes in the family adventure film. This fun added attraction takes the audience beyond sight and sound and into a symphony of scents as the movie is coming to life.
I love the "free of charge" part of that description, and so does Spy Kids director Robert Rodriguez who's quoted in the press release saying, "Families are going to love the interactivity of this new addition to the movie going experience. And best of all, you won't have to pay extra for 4D Aromascope, which will be provided to every theater whether it be 2D or 3D." Wow, free, they sure are kind. Just imagine if they charged you to buy a scratch-and-sniff card before walking into an over-priced 3D film.
Dimension is trying to sell this as some first time ever scenario when they say, "This innovative and celebrated franchise will now be the first to introduce audiences to the new adventure of 4D where they will have 8 special opportunities throughout the movie to access the action interactively through smell. The introduction of scent in the movie going experience adds to the outrageous fun by enhancing the action, adventure and comedy to take you where no film has gone before." This, of course, is not true.
Taking the lazy route, I will just allow Wikipedia to give you a brief example of when it has been used before and in a much more audience friendly manner, not through cards you had to scratch and hold up to your face:
In 1929, during the showing of The Broadway Melody, a New York City theater sprayed perfume from the ceiling. Arthur Mayer installed an in-theater smell system in Paramount's Rialto Theater on Broadway in 1933, which he used to deliver odors during a film. However, it would take over an hour to clear the scents from the theater, and some smells would linger for days afterward. Further attempts with releasing scents timed to key points in a film happened at a Detroit, Michigan theater with The Sea Hawk and Boom Town.
At the very least, scratch-and-sniff cards are a work around for those lingering smells, but even those aren't innovative. John Waters used a similar technique with Polyester in 1981.
More recently, a series of seven fragrances accompanied screenings of Terrence Malick's The New World in Japan, in which "a floral smell [accompanied] love scenes, with a mixture of peppermint and rosemary for tear-jerking moments." Of course, the Japanese are always ahead of the rest of the world on such things as they are also working on Smell-O-Vision TVs.
If you're anything like me, you're cringing at the very idea of this and Rodriguez isn't helping matters as he tells USA Today, "You never know, it would be great if it caught on and everyone started doing it." Would it? Would it really be great? I'm sure Adam Sandler is thinking up how many different ways a fart can smell for his next $100 million comedy right now should this gimmick catch on… which it won't.
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So THAT'S what they mean by 4D. And I think it sounds clever, not stupid.
Wow, the thought of an entire cinema hall of people sticking cards to their noses upon instruction by flashing numbers on the screen.. also, Joel McHale, how could you? How could you?
Haha you said an entire cinema hall of people. Im guessing the maxium number of people in each theater when this movie comes out will be around 10-15. It looks just plain awful.
I remember when POLYESTER came out in "odorama" (I think it was called). Never bothered to see it, but a friend of mine did. If he hadn't scratched the card he could probably sell it on eBay for a mint. I did get to see a "4D" movie last year in the Thailand pavilion though, which included flower scent and petals floating through the air.
Something to attract people because they probably think it will bomb the moment they greenlighted this thing.
I only clicked on this headline because I thought Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson was in this film… Sadly, I do not smell what the rock is cooking.
Since this is a family film, I imagine there will be more pleasing scents than there were for POLYESTER (Waters enjoyed getting audiences to pay to smell shit). However, I would have liked to get a whiff of Jessica Alba. ;)
The family film Rugrats Go Wild (the Rugrats/Wild Thornberries crossover) also used "smell-o-rama" or whatever the hell they want to call it these days.
That photoshopped baby is horrendous, by the way.
First thing I thought of was the 1996 pc game Leisure Suit Larry 7 which came with scratch and sniff cards.
At certain points of the game a certain number corresponding with the card would flash on screen and a booming voice said "CyberSniff 2000".