IGN: Top 10 Teaser Trailers: The early movie previews that got us rather excited.

by Orlando Parfitt, IGN UK

UK, August 7, 2009 - Teaser trailers often end up being the most exciting thing about a movie. An early preview - done right - can get the heart pumping like no other piece of movie promotion. Indeed some movies - like Cloverfield - can largely trace their success to the canny, intriguing, mouth-watering early glimpse audiences were given of the film.

Great teasers generally fall into two camps; those that offer a glimpse at mind-blowing footage from a highly anticipated movie that revs fans into a frenzy - such as The Phantom Menace or The Lord of the Rings. The other camp is those that use no actual footage at all, instead using a simple visual cue to convey the essence of the movie. When executed well, either approach can be breathtaking - here are some of our favourites.

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Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

Every fanboy (and girl) remembers where they were when they first saw the teaser for George Lucas' first Star Wars prequel. The opening tag line 'Every saga has a beginning'; the first glimpse of Ewan McGregor as young Obi Wan; the mad-looking pod race and best of all; Darth Maul flicking the 'on-switch' on his double-sided lightsaber. We remember running around the living room with excitement when we saw it, and this was probably an understated response compared to some.



Jurassic Park

One of several teasers on this list that uses absolutely no footage from the actual film. In 1994 you couldn't escape Jurassic Park, with the movie's logo seemingly plastered over every lunch box and billboard in the western world. Before that however it was this preview that began amping the hype, simply showing footage of how the dinosaur's DNA was extracted from amber. The key was not showing the ground-breaking CGI dinosaurs themselves, allowing audience imaginations to go into overdrive.



WALL•E

Pixar deserve a place on the list for taking the effort to produce scenes specially for the teaser trailers, usually to great effect. Considering how much time, money and love goes into every second of their films, that's no mean feat. WALL•E was a great example of this, with the teaser showing Pixar bigwigs basically boasting about all the good stuff they'd made, and only at the end giving a peak of the lovable robot. The moment he looks longingly to the sky, then delivers his own name in his signature metallic drawl, summed up the charm and character of the film perfectly.

click here for the rest: IGN: Top 10 Teaser Trailers

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