Our journey through 2017 into 2018 and wishing all denizens on Earth a Happy New Orbit around our Sun!

OUTPOST Productions wishes our valued clients, friends, and fans:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

As we commence 2018, we like a reflect briefly on our journey in 2017 and how these experiences would shape the new year.


Speaking Geek

In November 2017, Outpost organised our first conference titled "The Growing Influence of Geek Pop Culture and How to Profit from It" as part of the Comic Play festival in Publika Shopping Gallery. Geeks from various fan communities spoke first sharing what they wanted for the local geek pop culture scene, then followed by industry panelists speaking on the opportunities available via partnerships with movies, fan engagements at the cinema, and growing hobby interests.

Industry panelists from United International Pictures, TGV Cinemas and ShiokToys.com.

Geek panelists from Star Wars Malaysia Fan Club, POP Culture Fun and Comic Fiesta.

Our Outpost Commander also facilitated fan panel discussions for Ghost in the Shell collaborating once again with Comic Fiesta, and sharing of Star Wars fandom at The Force is 40 fan event in Sunway Pyramid.

Panelists from BFM, Comic Fiesta and The Hyped Geek discuss Ghost in the Shell.

Star Wars 40th Anniversary fan panel at The Force is 40 event in Sunway Pyramid.

Outpost table at The Force is 40 with charity raffle raising RM422 for the Spastic Children's Association of Selangor & Federal Territory (SCASFT) 

Our resident Vulcan Mr. Smock (right) talking about Star Trek at KL Sci-Fi Convention 2017.

More photos at our Facebook Page for the Geek Pop Culture Convention as well as The Force is 40 Star Wars fan celebration event.


Proud to Cosplay

Thanks to the nice folks at the movie distributors and cinemas, local cosplayers had occasion to show off their love of geeky fandoms at Movie Premieres for a number of superhero franchises.

Try counting all these Spideys at a special Fan Screening for Spider-man Homecoming hosted at mmCineplex e@Curve.

Star-Lords and friends assembled for Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 at MBO Starling.

The Mighty Thor with half-brother & sister Loki plus Dr. Banner with Mr. Dr. Strange at the Premiere of Thor Ragnarok at GSC Mid Valley Megamall.

Check out more photos at our Facebook Page on these cosplay gatherings for Spider-man Homecoming, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2, and Thor Ragnarok as well as group photo shoots at Animangaki and Comic Fiesta, the largest convention of 55,000 geeks / otaku in Malaysia.

This year we will be looking unite the largest gathering of Marvel superhero cosplayers in conjunction with release of Avengers Infinity War in late-April.


Bringing Smiles to Malaysians

Special thanks to our esteemed clients at United International Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment for continuing to trust us with their mascot roadshows bringing smiles to Malaysians across the country.

Gru together with his Minions delighting the young and young at heart for Despicable Me 3.

The Smurfs returned for their third movie outing.

Gene and Poop from one of the stranger animation flicks, The Emoji Movie.

Experiencing a Slice of the Movies

Last year Outpost were also involved with a number of promotional activities for blockbuster movies. We kicked off an early summer hit with racing simulation tournament for Fast & Furious 8 at TGV Cinemas. Then we shot a thematic video for sci-fi horror flick, Alien Covenant.

Finalists for the Furious Showdown racing simulation tournament by TGV Cinemas.

Warning! Alien xenomorphs are infesting your cinemas! #FacehuggerAttack.

Closing the year at Comic Fiesta, we setup a thematic "jungle" photo booth for Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, and had convention attendees try to Outrun the Maze in challenges inspired from Maze Runner: The Death Cure (in cinemas 25 January 2018).

Bringing a bit of Jumanji's jungle for Comic Fiesta attendees to photo shoot.

Recruiting Gladers to outrun the maze via game App and X-trainer running machine.

Beaming In Mr. Smock, Vulcan Cultural Officer

In the latter half of 2017, Mr. Smock of Vulcan beamed in to observe geeky human pop culture and has since conducted a number of YouTube video reviews about movies and geek collectibles.

Outpost resident Vulcan Mr. Smock talks about geek pop culture with human guests.

Thank you for being part of the journey with us at Outpost Productions. This year we will continue our mission to terraform the Geek Pop Culture landscape in Malaysia through thematic engagements with local fandoms. For corporate clientele, Outpost Productions offers Geek Consulting supported by on-ground events implementation.

Follow our social media channels on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Blog to stay tuned to the latest geeky news.

Live Long & Prosper. May The Force Be With You.

#LLAP #MTFBWY

#HappyNewYear #2018 #geek #popculture #fandom #scifi #superhero #comicbook #collectibles #cosplay #movies #VulcanSmock #review

Despicable Me: A Truly Despicable Box Office Success

Back in summer of 2010, the inaugural Despicable Me animated movie took the blockbuster season by storm. Not based on any fairy tales nor a sequel from a successful franchise, Despicable Me's original story with compelling characters and comedy appealing to both kids and adults held its ground against box office giants like Toy Story 3 and Shrek Forever After that same year. Raking in over USD543 million worldwide, Despicable Me screamed for a sequel spawning Universal Pictures' most profitable franchise.

Despicable Me (2010): $543 million.

That sequel simply titled Descpicable Me 2 released 3 years later in 2013 to satiate fans with a box office of over USD970 million. In between the 2 movies, Universal Studios Florida opened the Despicable Me Minion Mayhem theme park attraction in 2012. This attraction has since extended to Universal Studios Hollywood in 2014 and Japan in 2017. Perhaps Universal Studios Singapore would be next?

Despicable Me 2 (2013): $970 million.

Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment recognised that their Minion characters were part of the success of the franchise. So in 2015 they released a Minions movie just for the lovable yellow creatures. This prequel surpassed expectations plundering almost USD1.16 billion worldwide, ranking it as the 2nd highest grossing animated movie of all time! Cumulatively the 3 movies have earned over USD2.67 billion with an average production budget of only USD73 million per movie. Do the math and that's over 12 times return on investment!

Minions (2015): $1.16 billion!

Flashback on our Blog post on The Minions in 2015.

With that much profit that borders being despicable, we now come to the 3rd installment and 4th movie of the franchise, Despicable Me 3. Welcome back Gru and his lovable daughters, Margo, Edith and Agnes, plus of course the Minions aplenty. Steve Carell returns as the voice of Gru but also pull double duty this time as the voice of Dru, Gru's long-lost twin brother. "Oh brother" indeed!

Despicable Me 3 (2017): Care to guess the box office gross?

Official Synopsis:

Gru faces off against Balthazar Bratt, a former child star who has grown up to become obsessed with the character that he played in the '80s, and gets into some sibling rivalry when he meets his long-lost charming, cheerful, and more successful twin brother Dru who wants to team up with him for one last criminal heist to steal the diamond that Bratt has stolen. Meanwhile, The Minions rebel against Gru and decide to return to villainy with their new leader, the Minion Mel.

Directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda, co-directed by Eric Guillon and written by Cinco Paul & Ken Daurio, the animated film is produced by Illumination’s Chris Meledandri and Janet Healy, and executive produced by Chris Renaud.

From what can be gleamed from the trailer, not much of Balthazar Bratt is shown at all. Instead it focuses on introducing Dru and forthcoming misadventures into villainy by the twin brothers.

As popular as the Minions are, they look to feature substantially in their own story revolting against Gru and spending time in prison as seen in this next trailer:

Introduction bad boy Minion Mel.

By the way, voices of ALL the Minions come from one-man, Pierre Coffin the director himself! Coffin is of French and Indonesian descent which explains why some of the Minions gibberish speech sounds like Indonesian / Malay in this scene from the 2015 movie:

The Minions language is also said to contain words from English, Greek, Spanish and Italian.

Given the track record of this franchise, Despicable Me 3 looks set to be another huge animation hit. There are no reviews out yet at time of this post but here are 5 reasons given by CinemaOnline.

This school holidays, MyTOWN Shopping Centre has teamed up with United International Pictures Malaysia to bring Gru and his Minions LIVE to Malaysian fans!

Meet Gru with Minions Kevin (left) and Stuart at MyTown Shopping Centre.

Gru together with Minions Kevin and Stuart will be conducting Meet & Greet with fans everyday at 1pm and 6pm until 12 June, with additional sessions on Fridays, weekends & public holidays at 4pm. Find them at the main atrium ground floor near entrances of Parkson and Uniqlo.

Other family-friendly activities are available during the day. Fans can get free Minion tattoos whilst shoppers spending a minimum of RM200 receive thematic nail art. Kids can also join the arts and craft workshops to create Minion goggles, pencil holders and toppers. There is also loot to be won from Despicable Family Games leading up to every Meet & Greet session.

Crafting Minion accessories. Photo credit: thelevel.my.

Showing your love of Minions.

Kids colouring stations.
Photo credit: John Gullidge.

Photo credit: John Gullidge.

Find out when these fun activities are happening from the MyTOWN website scheduled until 12 June. So head on over this weekend for some despicable fun before school starts next week. It may even be the last chance to meet Gru and his Minions live before they head to their next adventure!

1 June has been designated Despicable Day and celebrated last week at MyTOWN in a special event for media and social media personalities. Here's a video of what happened:

Despicable Day at #MyTOWNKL
What a perfectly despicable day we had at #MyTOWNKL! Dance-offs’, Minion tattoo and nail parlours were just the beginning of the fun. Were you here that day? If you missed out on the fun, worry not, we’ve got you covered with plenty more fun-filled activities till 12 June. So bring your loved ones and come on over now, Compai! #DM3 #minions #DespicableMe3My
Posted by MyTOWN Shopping Centre on Sunday, 4 June 2017

Complimenting the Despicable Me activities are lots of merchandise to take home like toys, clothes or bedding products. Spend over RM200 here (and at other MyTOWN shops) to redeem a free limited edition Minion mini-squishy on top of free nail art.

Take home these squishy Minions when spending over RM200 at MyTOWN.

Check out these official merchandise which can easily exceed RM200 and help fund the next Minion movie:

Now the Outpost Movie Recon Team (M.R.T.) has been keeping our Tricorders scanning for other Despicable Me promos. Firstly, collectors of McDonald's Happy Meals should already have noticed the release of Despicable Me 3 toys since last week. 5 different sets of Despicable Me 3 figurines are available and being released weekly:

Stay happy when you get your Minion from a Happy Meal.

Meanwhile TGV Cinemas is offering the Despicable Me 3 Combo for RM28 comprising a regular popcorn and soft drink in a movie cup with figurine topper. 5 designs are available so completist collectors prepare to watch more movies at TGV Cinemas.

Over at MBO Cinemas, their Despicable Me 3 combos offers molded Minion 22oz cups with popcorn and limited edition Tic Tacs looking like Minions. Plus save RM2 when purchasing combos together with movie tickets.

Once Despicable Me 3 officially opens on 15 June, GSC Cinemas will be giving out Mini-Minion keychains with their Despicable Me 3 combo comprising 2 regular soft drinks and 1 large popcorn. There are 4 keychain designs to choose from featuring Minions that look like Kevin, Stuart, and Bob. Grab them fast as who knows which Minion is more popular

To get an earlier preview of the movie, United International Pictures Malaysia is offering Premiere Screening passes through contests on Facebook and Instagram; find out how to enter from their Note on Facebook. Also try your luck for contest by Hype.my and Hitz.com. To win some official Despicable Me 3 merchandise, join this contest by Nickelodeon Asia.

FREE stuff from Nickelodeon!

Disclaimer: Despicable Me, Minions and other trademarks are copyright to Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures, referenced here for fan service engagements without intent to infringe.