LOS ANGELES –- Adam Sandler's goofy humor will invade the Net over Labor Day weekend as the comedian launches what may be the first made-for-the-Web movie by a major star.
The six-minute animated film, which can be viewed for free at Adamsandler.com starting 3 September, is entitled The Peeper -– about a guy who peeps in women's windows.
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It's based on one of 11 skits on Sandler's latest comedy CD, Stan and Judy's Kid, slated for release by Warner Brothers Records on 23 September.
Warner Brothers Records will begin previewing the short on Monday in the "widgets" area of its site. Warner also plans to promote the album through online retailers. Some of the retailers will have a downloadable version of one of the album's six songs, "Seven Foot Man," which will "evaporate" after the CD's release date.
By bypassing traditional media, Sandler is hoping to create a buzz for his album among young adults -- his core constituency -- that will help propel album sales.
"If someone wanted to see this animated short, I wanted to give them the ability to watch it whenever they got the urge," Sandler said in a prepared statement.
Along with the release of The Peeper, Sandler will launch his own fan community Web site on Warner Brothers' AcmeCity site, a 400,000-member homepage community.
Sandler's animated Web short was created by Web animator Tom Winkler of Doodie.com fame. Winkler has also worked on such primetime shows as The Simpsons, The Critic, and The Norm Show.
To eliminate time-consuming downloads, Warner Brothers created The Peeper using Macromedia Flash, the increasingly popular vector-based graphics format.
