General Animated Features Talk

I would like to have an all-encompassing topic for simple chat, or, if the admins and programmers don't mind, a chat area on CF. But rather than create hundreds of topics for every animated movie that comes out, I want to talk about the current animated movies out as well as future movies that I'm looking forward to, as well as satiating my wandering mind.

1) First off, I have not seen Beowulf or Enchanted, so I may be wrong in the following. Each is a different breed of animation (though some may dispute that claim). Beowulf uses motion capture and then heavy helpings of photoshop burn and gloss tools (jk). It got good reviews (70% on Rotten Tomatoes), and story-wise, it was co-written by Neil Gaiman. Somewhere I saw a review stating that this movie was the "future of animation." Personally, I think 300 did a better job of digitally enhancing when they tried to make the CGI as subtle as possible, whereas Beowulf goes overboard and the characters and animation is obviously CGI.

Enchanted is only about 1/4 animated, I've heard, maybe less. It looks pretty fun, following the Disney Princess formula while lampooning it as well. It got excellent reviews, 94% on RT. Now I just need to convince my niece to go with me. She wants to see the Golden Compass.

Upcoming attractions? Um, not much on the horizon.
The Frog Princess - has already caused Al Sharpton to pop a gasket,
Kung Fu Panda - looks like it will go the way of Shark Tale, and don't you dare mention
Alvin and the Chipmunks - Actually, no, go ahead. i want to hear what other people have to say about it.
Finally, there is Water Warriors, a movie I know nothing about, whose tagline is "Braveheart with frogs." It's been in production for years (since before 2005), and has pretty much disappeared.

As for DVDs, Futurama, the Janet to the Simpson's Marsha, gets a new release this Tuesday, entitled Bender's Big Score.

On TV, the next generation of Nicktoons have been shown off during the Thanksgiving marathon, while the third generation of Cartoon Network animation is kind of underway (Chowder has come out, but the Misadventures of Flapjack remains AWOL). The Boondocks has stagnated in my opinion. Except for Return of Stinkmeaner and Kung Fu Wolf-B****, the episodes have been pretty blah, and for some reason every episode needs to contain a reference to Bruce Lee.

And, um.... Anime. Death Note suffers from the same problems as the manga, trying to put a novel to pictures and make it interesting without droning on and on and on. Thankfully, Death Note can be understood, and doesn't suffer from the Masamune Shirow affect (having your characters talk about things only decipherable to about 1% of the audience). Despite the buzz about it, the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is a pretty bland anime, if the episodes are watched in order. Except for a couple outstanding episodes, the fact that for the American release the DVDs put the episodes in the correct order of sequence (the original Japanese release mixed up the order, so audiences had no sense idea where they were in the storyline) just makes this another so-so anime from Japan.

Yikes, I've droned on. What are other's thoughts on various animated things, including properties I haven't mentioned here?

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Paul Naas on November 26, 2007 at 4:32pm: I think you mean "Futurama, the Jan to the Simpson's Marsha." Or were you making a cultural reference to something other than the Brady Bunch? ;0); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kevin Smith on November 26, 2007 at 6:44pm: Isn't Jan short for Janet? Got something meaningful to contribute?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Mariah Osmundson on December 7, 2007 at 2:06pm: Let's see, I did actually like Beowulf, despite going into it skeptical of the mocap. But I had heard they'd used mocap, the director didn't like it, and they went back and tweaked it ALL with REAL 3D animators! (What a novel idea, right? :P) I was surprised that I actually was scared at parts! Grendel was straight up creepy. The first time you see him, it's fairly shocking, and every time after that, it's like he's so hideous you want to look away but you just can't!

The expressions were a LOT less stiff than I expected too. I remember back when Final Fantasy: Spirits Within came out, I loved everything but the expressions. They felt like they needed to be pushed just a little more. But Beowulf did pretty damn good!

But then, this is also assuming you like/are giving a chance to the CG movies that are going for realism. I think it was both from my teachers and from on The Incredibles commentary that I heard it's almost unachievable to go for complete realism with CG, and even if you made it, something would still be missing. So that's why it's actually more believable to go for stylized or cartoony.

On the other hand EVERYONE should buy the new Futurama DVD, because it's amazing, awesome, and packed with goodies. And it's just a dream come true to see a new episode again after years without! :); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Chris Battle on December 7, 2007 at 2:51pm: Finally watched the trailer for PERSEPOLIS, and it looks pretty good; Definintely retains the feel of it's French graphic novel roots. ( Having never read the original, I'm just basing that on other bande dessinée I'm familiar with.) It's nice to see something transcending the usual kiddie subject matter. As usual it has to come from outside the states.

Also of note is Cartoon Saloon's BRENDAN & THE SECRET OF KELLS, a highly stylistic 2-D (!!!) film being made in Ireland. There production blog can be found HERE. Who knows if we'll ever see it here in the U.S., but it looks amazing.; ▶ Reply to This