How It Should Have Ended
 We've all been there, hunkered in the movie theater, plowing through the popcorn, and happily engrossed in the big screen. But then, the flick winds its way to a close—and the movie flops. We're left with a lousy finish.
It doesn't have to end that way. For a couple of years now, the talented crew at How It Should Have Ended have been crafting their own conclusions to some of their favorite (or not so favorite) films. When we checked in with producer Tina Alexander, she told us how they were inspired to create animated alternatives to some of Hollywood's classic fare... Hey, Tina! Most movie-goers just gripe when a flick ends badly. What made you all take it to the next level? We are a small crew of independent live-action film makers and have completed three shorts. It would be an understatement to say we are really into movies, so we probably talk about how movies should have ended a lot. Daniel (our director for the live action shorts) is also an artist and animator and decided one day to animate a new ending to the final "Matrix" movie because we were collectively disappointed. After I saw how good it was, I thought there might be an audience on the Internet for this kind of thing, and www.howitshouldhaveended.com was born. That was July 2005. We're wondering how the whole process works. From your crew page, we can guess that Tommy (concept man) comes up with each idea, Daniel (artist) creates it, and Mark (camera man) shoots it—but we know there's more to it than that. The crew page is more about our "crew" of friends than about the actual production side of the cartoons. Tommy, Daniel and I come up with an idea that we like and then get it into script form. Daniel then draws, animates and edits the entire thing himself. Our friend Brian composes all the music for us and we all pitch in as voice talent with Daniel and Stephanie being the main voice actors. How much time does each clip require to make? It depends on the scope of the cartoon. "Ocean's 40" took a couple of weeks because it's minimal animation and relatively short. We are about to release "Spiderman 3" next week and it's taken over three months to complete and is our longest animation to date. On average they take about two months. Do you have a favorite one? I think we are all pretty fond of "How Superman Should Have Ended" because it put us on the map. We got to travel to L.A. for the Scream Awards on Spike TV and received an award for Best Internet Parody. It's really hard to pick a favorite because they are all so different, but we still all laugh a lot at "How Lord of the Rings Should Have Ended." We've also been highly amused at the controversy and debate it caused about its plausibility. Has anyone connected to a film lampooned on the site ever contacted you? Not exactly, but we did get Brandon Routh's attention, which was really flattering. He did an online Q&A through his web site last year and linked to our web site and the "Superman How It Should Have Ended." He said our cartoon was his response to Christian Bale's statement that "Batman" is better than "Superman." What are your day jobs? Has your work on How It Should Have Ended helped any of you to land new work? Nothing BIG time yet. Are you interested Yahoo? :) Ha! If we start hanging with the movers and shakers, we'll do our best. How do you decide which films to "revise"? Is it just that one of you hated the ending to the flick—or do other requirements, such as box office popularity, play a role? Lots of things play a role. I would say at least half of the movies that we have parodied where films that we actually loved... so in a lot of ways, it's flattery that we spoofed it. Occasionally it's because we were really disappointed, or we found something ridiculous that is just too easy to not poke fun at. There always has to be a flaw, and most movies have them, even if they're good. Box office popularity does come into play, as well as our audience. It's clear that fantasy, comic book, and Sci-fi movies are far more popular with our fans. Any plans to do more blooper-filled "documentaries" like the "Look Back at It's a Wonderful Life"? We loved that take and its closing, Stewart-penned poem. Thanks! We loved that one too and we were really excited to do a holiday special. We like to do one special a year, so yes, there will be similar spoofs to come. Have you considered making preferable endings to TV series, too? We'd love to see your take on "Sex and the City." Or "Seinfeld." We get requests for this a lot, but don't have any plans for it as of yet. There are still too many movies to choose from! We love hearing you say that. Thanks again, Tina! We're looking forward to "Spiderman 3 How It Should Have Ended"!
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