Dancing Bears in Films — Live-Action.
- The 2006 film Ten Canoes received attention for its entire cast consisting of Aboriginal Australians, with all of the on-screen dialogue in the Yolngu
or Kuninjku languages (narration is available in either Yolngu or English). Like Atanarjuat, it won or was nominated for a big pile of awards.note - 1917 is an entire feature-length film which appears to be one continuous take. In actual fact, there was a lot of directing wizardry going on to hide the cuts between (still very long) individual takes as the main character walks between locations etc, but still praise was lavished on the film's incredible technical achievement.
- 80 for Brady is a film that knowingly appeals to a very narrow demographic of older New England Patriots fans, but outside of that it earned some notoriety for the experiment/publicity stunt of offering virtually all tickets to the film at a generous discount compared to typical theater prices. Done with the hope that it would attract older moviegoers that were more reluctant to return to theaters post-pandemic, the trick did seemingly work as the film made a profit.
- Act of Valor is a feature-length film showcasing active-duty Navy Seals using their actual equipment and methods.
- All the Money in the World had to entirely replace a major actor after Kevin Spacey's history of sexual assault was exposed, with his part being entirely re-shot with Christopher Plummer just a few weeks before its release. Several reviews commented that the seamless integration of the actor change is easily the most interesting thing about the film.
- Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, a 2002 film produced entirely by Inuit, is a reasonably good movie... but the fact that it won 20 international awards and was nominated for ten more can really only be explained by people's appreciation for the fact that a film made by, for, and in the Inuit community (with all of the dialogue in Inuktitut) was able to dance at all.
- Avatar. The whole fuss about the technological achievements necessary to pull the movie off, including 3D digital film cameras, motion capture refinements, etc. The never-fully-disclosed but definitely astronomical budget and the marketing-induced hype also contributed to its status as this.
- Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) plays with this both In-Universe and out. The film is shot almost entirely as an Epic Tracking Shot (it isn't really, but it does a very good job of simulating one), with only a few visible cuts in its entire run, which would qualify it for this. More interestingly, it focuses on the main character trying to break into theater without much success, and the play includes a scene where his character commits suicide. At the climax of the movie, he switches out the prop gun for a real one and attempts a real suicide, which ends up winning the play far more accolades and attention than it was getting earlier by virtue of this.
- Bird Box got a lot of attention for the fact that the actors were actually blindfolded and unable to see for most of their scenes, rather than wearing fake blindfolds with small eyeholes or being given CGI blindfolds in post production. The viral "Bird Box Challenge" meme also led a lot of people to see what all the fuss was about.
- Bitter Lake: The first ever movie filmed entirely in fursuit, by way of a fantasy movie set in a World of Funny Animals.
- Blood Harvest's main draw is the fact that it stars Tiny Tim as a deranged clown.
- Lars von Trier's The Boss Of It All (2006) is known primarily for its Automavision technique, whereby the film did not use a cameraman; instead, a computer chose the camera movements and angles
- Boyhood is a pretty standard Slice of Life film about life and growing up. The real draw is the fact that it purposefully took over ten years to produce as it averted Time-Shifted Actors and was filmed at different points using the same actors. So when we see six year old Mason grow into an adult we really are seeing his actor transform from a child into a man.
- The Brown Bunny, an independent movie that advertised its unsimulated oral sex scene starring director/actor Vincent Gallo and his then-girlfriend Chloe Sevigny. It also achieved notoriety for the disastrous reception its rough cut received at Cannes, causing a public flame war between Gallo and Roger Ebert.
- Bugsy Malone is plot-wise a generic gangster film, except for the fact that all the actors are children and teens playing adult roles, and instead of guns, they "shoot" each other by throwing pies at each other, which is still treated dead seriously.
- Cannibal Holocaust is remembered for being the originator of the found-footage genre, and the legal battle that ensued when the director was accused of making a snuff film—and his actors had to break contract to appear in court and prove they had not in fact been murdered on screen. Another thing that draws attention to it is the fact that several animals involved in the production actually were killed onscreen.
- One of the selling points of the infamous 2019 film adaptation of the musical Cats was its "digital fur technology", using CGI and motion capture (as well as oversized sets) to transform its All-Star Cast into dancing anthropomorphic felines. Though if anyone who laid eyes on the final product is to be believed, it ended up working against the movie's favor.
- Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022) already has a gimmick of metahumor that brought a lot of attention from those who wouldn't otherwise care for a Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers movie, but what got even more media attention was the sheer amount of character cameos in the film, from both Disney and non-Disney properties.
- The Cloverfield Paradox had already picked up a lot of notoriety by the time Netflix acquired the rights, due to its long Troubled Production becoming the stuff of legend, and its release date was still a complete mystery. Interest then skyrocketed when Netflix unexpectedly aired a trailer during the 2018 Super Bowl, which revealed that the film would be available to stream later that night, far sooner than anyone had anticipated. The brilliant surprise release attracted a lot of viewers, despite the movie itself ultimately getting a pretty cold reception from critics, general audiences, and Cloverfield fans alike.
- Comrade Kim Goes Flying, a British-and-Belgian-financed Romantic Comedy set and filmed entirely in North Korea.
- The Creator (2023): A not insubstantial part of the film's pre-release hype revolved around the fact that it featured a very modest budget of just $80 million and was filmed on a Sony FX3 (a $4,000 camera, a bargain at a professional cinema level) in spite of also being an IMAX-compatible, special-effects heavy film.
- Brandon Lee was killed in a freak accident during the filming of The Crow (1994), and in the scenes that hadn't been filmed yet he had to be digitally inserted or replaced by a double. This generated a lot of interest in the film at the time.
- The sole selling point for the film The Cure For Insomnia was that, with a running time of 87 hours, it was the world's longest movie.
- Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid is built around the clever editing and production tricks that make it seem like Steve Martin is directly interacting with the characters in old movie clips. Without those, there wouldn't be a movie.
- The 1975 horror film Deafula is a loose adaptation of Dracula with Christian overtones... and with all of its dialogue delivered in American Sign Language. Later releases of the film included a voiceover translation for hearing audiences.
- The central gimmick of Death House is that it packs in as many well-known horror movie actors into its cast as possible, along with being written by Gunnar Hansen (Leatherface from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre), who also cameos in his final film appearance.
- The only thing anyone ever brings up when mentioning The Devil Inside is its infamous ending where it abruptly ends in a car crash and a link to a defunct website meant to finish the story.
- Robert Rodriguez's El Mariachi was seen as impressive due to being a major studio release with an initial budget of $7,000.
- Errementari, a feature length film based on a Basque folktale that is entirely filmed in a extinct dialect of the Basque language.
- Escape from Tomorrow probably wouldn't have received as much hype as it is were it not for the fact that the film — a dark surrealist neo-noir depicting a man slowly going insane — was extensively sneak-shot throughout Disney Theme Parks.
- Exorcist: The Beginning and its "companion film" Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist are best known for being...two different versions of the same movie, filmed back-to-back. During production, the studio brought in a new director to supervise a series of reshoots after they decided that they weren't happy with how the film turned out—but the new director was forced to shoot an entirely new movie, since most of the cast was unavailable to participate in the reshoots. Then after the new version was trashed by critics and underperformed at the box office, the studio agreed to complete and release the original version the following year; the two versions share the same lead actor and the same basic premise, but are otherwise drastically different in tone and style. The sheer weirdness of the production history is the main reason anybody remembers either film today.
- Fitzcarraldo is best-known simply because of its Troubled Production, and the fact that you're really watching people moving a ship through the jungle, using techniques even more difficult than the ones of the real event it's based on.
- Freaks is arguably remembered because it stars legitimate carnival performers as the titular 'freaks'. There's also the urban legend that the sight of these people on film caused one audience member to suffer a miscarriage.
- The Will Smith vehicle Gemini Man was marketed almost entirely on the novelty of Smith playing both main characters, one of whom is a younger clone created with de-aging technology. The general reaction has been negative, however, with many feeling that it wasn't a great movie beyond the gimmick. Some have also opined that it probably would have been more impressive with an actor who has aged less gracefully than Smith.
- Gigli sold itself largely on the idea that it would be a romance starring Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck when the two were known for being in a relationship (with "Bennifer" being a common tabloid fixture). Unfortunately for the film, it had the exact opposite effect—the movie bombed so hard that it's often suggested to be a reason they broke up not long after.
- Gravity is a straightforward Disaster Movie about a marooned person trying to return to civilization, with little characterization if any. The catch is that the movie takes place in space, without sci-fi or fantastical elements involved but rather real life space stations and other technology, no Artificial Gravity and no sound. The first scene is also a single 13 minute take (advertised extensively when the movie came out, forgotten since due to later movies featuring even longer takes).
- Hardcore Henry is a high-octane, fast-paced action film best known for being shot entirely from the first-person perspective of the main character. Unsurprisingly, it was influenced largely by First-Person Shooter games.
- House of Wax (2005) is a middle-grade slasher flick whose claim to fame, and chief advertising gimmick, is the chance to see Paris Hilton die messily.
- The Human Centipede, which is about three people getting sewn together anus-to-mouth. The premise is far more horrifying than the execution. Film critic Roger Ebert refused to give it a star rating because it was so absurd, and anyone who wanted to see such a film would do it whether Ebert approved of it or not.
- Heath Ledger's last film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Ledger only managed to film half of his role before dying, and Colin Farrell, Jude Law and Johnny Depp were brought in to play the character when he was in an Eldritch Location. Quite a few people watched the film just to see if they could pull it off.
- Incubus, filmed entirely in Esperanto and starring William Shatner.
- The Invisible Guardian and sequels are rather average crime thriller movies about a cop investigating a string of murders... except for the fact that they are set in the Basque Country and feature references to Basque mythology and creatures, so the promotion centered on those.
- Irati: First film that does not just feature Basque mythology (like the above) but is also set in the remote past and is entirely filmed in the Basque language (hence the usual commentary about it being "Basque Lord of the Rings").
- The Jazz Singer in 1927 was the first film to feature lip-synchronized singing and dialogue, albeit only in a few scenes. It served as a Genre Turning Point for film in general, ushering in the Rise of the Talkies.
- Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was mainly marketed on its central gimmick of featuring the four main actors playing roles outside their comfort zone.
- Its sequel built upon this gimmick; the four main actors from the first movie return, but three of the four play completely different characters with completely different personalities. The four leads play Digital Avatars in an in-universe video game, and three of them are controlled by different players in the sequel.
- Tom Hooper's 2012 film adaptation of Les Misérables was largely sold on the fact that its singing was all filmed and performed live on set rather than recorded separately and dubbed over (as is standard for movie musicals).
- The Machinist may be a tense, well-acted drama, but it has also become famous for the ghoulish appearance◊ of Christian Bale, who starved himself down to a skeleton for the role.
- At the time it was released, Manos: The Hands of Fate piqued its premiere audience's interest for being a film made on a dare between an actual filmmaker and a fertilizer salesman. Said salesman used a single camera to record all of the footage in the film, and hired a man (John Reynolds) to play a satyr using special prosthetics. The film became infamous for how bad it was, and later received new interest for being one of the worst films ever screened on Mystery Science Theater 3000. It was also notable for being the only role Reynolds (Torgo) ever played — he killed himself a month before the film opened.
- The Marvel Cinematic Universe is best known for using a Shared Universe model of storytelling, the scope of which had previously never been seen before on film. Every film has been set within the same universe, often with many Continuity Nod references throughout, even when featuring characters completely disconnected from those previously shown. As a result, many viewers only tune in to some instalments purely because they're part of this universe, even if the film itself is featuring particularly obscure or unknown characters, or has been deemed So OK, It's Average. As this has gone on, some instalments have added their own individual dancing bears, such as focusing on one prominent character but guest-starring another hero in a substantial role, or being a huge Crisis Crossover.
- Memento: The film told backwards!
- Michael Jackson's This Is It wouldn't have been made if not for the fact that Jackson died before the concert series he was rehearsing for could take place, leaving the rehearsal footage that was shot for his personal use as the last footage of him performing at all, and thus of huge interest to his fans.
- Million Dollar Mystery would have been an entirely forgettable Box Office Bomb if not for the gimmick in its marketing — at the end of the film, audience members were promised the chance to win one million dollars by following clues to answer the film's mystery.
- The Irish film My Name Is Emily was given a lot of press for the fact that its director suffered from motor neuron disease and directed the entire film through eye-recognition software. Other press came from a scene where hundreds of extras run naked into the sea.
- The Mummy (2017): Attempted with the (real) zero gravity scene during the plane crash sequence, which was extensively advertised and occupied a long part of the trailer. However the movie bombed under (unrelated) cries of They Changed It, Now It Sucks!.
- Pixels got a lot of buzz early on because of the involvement of many licensed video game characters. Sadly, it didn't work out as well as Adam Sandler hoped, and the film got a poor reception from critics and regular moviegoers alike.
- Primer is mostly well known for having No Budget and being made by an engineer rather than anyone with a film-making background. And for being impenetrably confusing.
- A common criticism of Oceans 8 was the perception that it tried to use its all-female cast as a Dancing Bear; the cast was the only thing setting the movie apart from your average heist movie, and the advertising placed a great deal of emphasis on it, leading to accusations that the Feminist Fantasy angle was just an attempt to invoke this trope and prop up a mediocre movie.
- The film Redline allegedly went for this by getting star Eddie Griffin to crash a Ferrari Enzo as a publicity stunt. It failed miserably because car fans, presumably the target market, were outraged at the destruction of an extremely expensive and rare car as part of the stunt. According to Griffin's side of the story as told in "Freedom of Speech", though, the car crash was completely unintentional on his part and was not a publicity stunt.
- Revolutionary Road is a movie about a couple with a disintegrating marriage...and the only film Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet starred in together since Titanic (1997). Because of this, the major reason to watch it is just to see Jack and Rose breaking up.
- Roundhay Garden Scene, who consist of just two seconds of people walking around in a garden, wouldn't be very interesting to most if this weren't also the oldest known surviving film clip in history.
- Roar — a 1981 passion project by Tippi Hedren — is best remembered for taking eleven years to finish because the film had a large cast of African wild animals that resulted in hundreds of attacks and injuries on set. Some reviews of the film said it was worth watching just to see lions, tigers and cheetahs interact with the main cast.
- Rope is an interesting subversion; the big Dancing Bear element it was advertised on (a film with as few cuts as possible) wound up being largely forgotten in favor of the writing and performances. Alfred Hitchcock considered the movie a failed experiment, and critics tend to agree that the technical execution of the Dancing Bear left much to be desired, leaving nothing memorable about the film except the legitimately gripping and well-written story.
- The 2003 film Russian Ark is a 90-minute exploration of Russia's legendary museum and historical building the Hermitage. The film takes place over centuries, features a literal cast of thousands, has amazing costuming, good performances, and so on. The entire movie is also filmed in one single continuous shot, without a single cut.
- The film Saratoga was marketed around being the last performance of Jean Harlow before she died. As she'd only filmed half of her part, they resorted to extensive camera tricks, body doubles and soundalikes - so it became something of a challenge to guess which scenes featured the doubles.
- A Serbian Film: A movie about the making of a Snuff Film, which people only seek out to see if it is as awful and over the top as it is rumored to be (that's A Serbian Film itself, not the Show Within a Show).
- Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and Sin City were novel when they came out in the mid-2000s because they were among the first major films to use a "digital backlot" which blended live action characters with entirely digital backgrounds. The former was also noteworthy for featuring Sir Laurence Olivier a full fifteen years after his death, via the use of careful editing of previous recordings. This was in fact the main reason Jude Law decided to star in the film.
- Samuel L. Jackson claims he was in the movie Snakes on a Plane only because of the title. The name alone made it vastly popular on the Internet, long before it was released. Ironically, although the Internet buzz led the studio to expect "dancing bear" type success at the box office, the film itself didn't do nearly as well as expected.
- S.O.B.: Julie Andrews goes topless. In the film, Andrews plays a former star of wholesome family films who goes topless to promote a film. A bear within a bear!
- The first trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) featured such bad CGI for the title character that the movie was pushed back and redone before the second trailer came out; see here to compare.
- South Of Sanity is a Slasher Movie shot in Antarctica by the crew of a base stationed there.
- The Irish film Spears got a lot of attention surrounding the fact that it was a low budget indie that was shot in London, Berlin and Florence in addition to Ireland - all through self-funding too.
- Tangerine was critically acclaimed primarily for its portrayal of its two transgender leads in a manner that did not delve too deeply into their identity while still affording them due respect. Historically, it's notable for providing the film for the first Academy Award campaign for an openly transgender actress supported by a film producer, and for having been shot entirely on an iPhone.
- The Terror of Tiny Town is a 1938 Western movie with an all-midget cast.
- Timecode is not just done in Real Time, but in real time with a four-way split screen throughout.
- William Castle's The Tingler introduced a "spine-tingling" sensation people experience when afraid of something. Certain seats in theaters showing the film had devices installed so that at certain points the viewer would feel something crawling up their back...
- Tiptoes wouldn't be nearly as well-known were it not for its absurd teaser trailer that attempts to make a serious drama about dwarfism into a romantic comedy from the 90s, the Troubled Production, or Gary Oldman's out-of-turn performance as a dwarf (complete with prosthetics).
- For Trail of the Pink Panther (1982), Blake Edwards and MGM/UA used mostly-unused scenes from The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976) of the late Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau for the film's first half by putting them into a different storyline via new scenes with the series regulars. The second half, after Clouseau "goes missing", is a Clip Show of his greatest hits tied together with a reporter investigating the matter. Pitted against a number of production obstacles, Edwards' new film became a dancing bear that spiked the audience's curiosity to come out and judge if he could make it funny. The fact that Edwards couldn't became clear when Sellers's widow successfully sued him and the studio for tarnishing her late husband's image. This proved a bad omen for the next film, 1983's Curse of the Pink Panther, which picked up where this left off to introduce Clouseau's Replacement Scrappy.
- TRON was viewed as this by the Hollywood community when it was released. Many people went to see it simply for the computer animation, not out of any expectation of high entertainment.
- Wake Up, Ron Burgundy is a semi-sequel to Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. It is notable because the film comprises deleted scenes, outtakes and unused subplots from the original film - there was so much material that the filmmakers cobbled it together and released it direct-to-DVD.
- Waterworld generated interest from its floating sets, which caused it to become a highly troubled production and inflated its budget to the largest of any film at the time.
- Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey: A literal example with no pun intended. While the film itself is a generic, paint-by-numbers horror/slasher flick that isn't particularly creative and interesting to begin with, the villains of said generic, paint-by-numbers horror/slasher flick? Winnie-The-Pooh and Piglet. That alone got the attention of the public, and even the director, Rhys-Frake Waterfield, has discussed how absolutely absurd a concept like this was. It also drew attention for being the very first somewhat-mainstream project to feature Winnie-the-Pooh after the character entered the Public Domain.
