Tyler Perry has spent much of his acting career in ladies clothing, playing his on-screen alter-ego Madea. There have been six movies centered around the feisty, opinionated old woman, and the character has also made guest appearances in other Perry movies over the years. However, “A Madea Christmas”, which was released last holiday season, made only $52 million (the second lowest in the franchise). Perry’s hoping to add to that total when the DVD is released on November 25th.
It’s no surprise, with Madea’s popularity apparently sliding, that Perry has been looking to widen his acting scope. Recently he did a nice job in the very small role of attorney Tanner Bolt in “Gone Girl”. Now Perry’s getting into the world of animation, and including his trademark character. “Madea’s Tough Love”, a PG-rated hand-drawn animated film, is set to be released on Digital HD January 13th and on DVD/VOD January 20th.
Even though the animation itself looks cheap in comparison to what were used to, I’m surprised that Lionsgate didn’t option this for theaters. It could have done well, especially with families looking for something over the usually bare mid-January period. Based on the first trailer, Madea is in prime form (though with less adult humor and bad language). And because she’s animated, the situations are bound to be wilder than ever.
I’ve always enjoyed the Madea character, especially when placed within the right, satirical material. Hopefully “Madea’s Tough Love” will be a fun kick-off to what will be a busy 2015 in animation.
Lights Camera Jackson (a.k.a. Jackson Murphy) began his career as a film critic in 2006 at the age of 7. To date, Jackson has written nearly 1,000 reviews of new releases and, in total, has seen more than 1,500 films. In 2010, Jackson became the youngest person to win a NY Emmy Award, for his on-air movie reviews on Time Warner TV station, Capital News 9. And in 2011, Jackson was inducted into the Broadcast Film Critics Association as their youngest member. The BFCA’s annual Critics Choice Awards is one of the industry’s most recognized and prestigious awards shows. Jackson is also a member of SAG-AFTRA and votes annually for the Screen Actors Guild Awards.