Anyone else bored with CGI animation?

[The Curmudgeon]

CGI Movies - enough already!

It was bound to happen; one CGI cartoon movie does well and then more follow. But even I was surprised that, after Toy Story 2, the cinema listings seemed to fill with more and more cartoon movies, all super slick animation and voiced by big name stars. I suppose we could think of it as "too much of a good thing", but really, after Toy Story 2 the animation may have improved, but the overall quality of the movies have been in steady decline.

Hasn't stopped them coming though - check this little (not definitive) list out..

Bugs Life, Robots, Chicken Little, Ice Age (and sequel), Finding Nemo, Madagascar, The Wild, Monsters Inc, Shrek (and sequel), The Incredibles, Polar Express, Antz, Over The Hedge, Shark Tale, Cars, Flushed Away..

Scary, isn't it? And with the impending Shrek III (God help us), plus about ten more that I probably haven't heard of, it looks like this animated bubble is about to burst.

Personally, I am pig sick of all of them. I can only see so many shiny wide-eyed cute talking animals, all spouting glib remarks and post-modern dialogue. I can only stomach so many sassy, streetwise, hip-hop speaking creatures. The charm and style that Toy Story had is long gone (look no further than Shark Tale and Madagascar for where we're at now. Ever wanted to hear a lion say "that is off the chiz-ain"? No - I didn't either).

This isn't a plea for a boycott of CGI movies. It's not even a plea to return to traditional 2-D animation (it certainly wouldn't hurt though - was The Iron Giant any less awesome because it wasn't done on computer, that it was actually, GASP, drawn by hand?). It's asking that these film makers stop churning out these features, that were once novel and with tight, razor sharp jokes and engaging, involving plots.

But they're continuing to make money, so that's not going to happen for a long time yet. A real shame.

[hackersanonymous]

Being somewhat of a geek, you'd think I'd be in hog's heaven with all the CGI gubbins rolling out of Hollywood lately.

But, no... Like The Curmudgeon, I feel that the fundamental reason that 2D films were bombing is shining through - there's absolutely not one drop left in the originality pool.

I mean aside from the inevitable sequels complete with unfunny "hip" remarks, we now seem to have arrived all too quickly where one animation rips off another. M'Lud, I give you Madascar where a lion, a giraffe and two other animals are taken out of their element.

Blow me down, but what does "The Wild" feature? A Lion, a giraffe and - you get the idea...

As for Cars - I'm not sure what the reason for it was, but this seems to have been delayed for about 3 years or something...

Could it be - shock, gasp - Pixar actually thought "Hmm, maybe we should make this one good rather than just appealing to Kids who are too young to realise the film ain't that great" (See The Incredibles and Finding Nemo - both thoroughly and irritatingly ho-hum in my opinion)..

Sadly, it seems even Pixar aren't immune... IMDB lists Toy Story 3 as being a 2008 release...

I think the brakes need to be pulled sharpish. Otherwise we'll be seeing CGI versions of classics like Snow White and Cinderella. Don't think they wouldn't. I mean, Disney were so desperate for a buck they made sequels to just about every decent 2D film they ever released.

Toodles!

[The Curmudgeon]

You know something I've noticed about Disney? They've managed to get every negative review I've posted on Amazon pulled. Bambi II - review gone. Disney Pop Hits - review gone. There was another one for something else as well, but it's gone too. That's why my reviews in here and my reviews on Amazon don't measure up numerically - some were just too damn controversial - or Disney don't want people bad-mouthing their crap.

I thought, and continue to think, Cars looks RUBBISH. Charmless, dull and lacking any sense of inventivness that the likes of Toy Story had.

And Finding Nemo? I still fail to see why that did so well. It was BORING.

[InvisibleWolfMan]

Hi.

I thought I'd just let you know that it may not be Disney totally behind all of those missing negative reviews. From what I hear, Amazon is pulling a certain amount of negative reviews of the upcoming STAR WARS O.T. releases. Seems they don't wanna discourage the buyers from buying a product, and since there's a division over how poorly George is releasing these (even my bootlegs are better than what he plans on) it's gonna be a "make or break" situation. So it seems Amazon wants to sell these rather than have stock just sitting around.

The only other thing I can think of why they pull your negative reviews of Disney stuff is because alot of parents with kids get angry much more quickly and probably complain...not understanding that you're just smarter than they are!

[The Curmudgeon]

Hmmm... yeah, that's probably it. As nice as it is to imagine some lowly Disney employee hired to wipe out any negative reviews, it's probably just some glassy-eyed "la la la - life is nice" moron with a Bambi fetish complaining a lot.

I thought the Star Wars DVD's sounded pretty good. A double disc for each movie? Sounds alright to me.

[trashcanman]

Ah, our good friends at Disney, or as I call it: The Great Satan. Home of every single thing that is wrong with corporate America, a soulless wallet-raping machine that wants to brainwash our children at the earliest possible age via cartoons of questionable content, the ones that are keeping the director's cut of "Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair" down, purveyors of censorships unfathomable, and are even willing to ravage every worthwhile film they've ever made for another quick buck...and another and another and another...
Other than "The Incredibles" (which rocks), I've never bought into the Pixar hype. Fun films, but not something I'd go out of my way to watch. I'd watch the "Justice League" series a hundred times before even glancing at "Madagascar" or "Cars", so old-fashioned 2-D animation ain't dead yet. And let's not forget our neighbors to the East. Compare any of the films of Hayao Miyazaki to absolutely ANYTHING Disney or Pixar has done lately and tell me that anime shouldn't be taking over as the premier style of animated entertainment. It's too bad that these companies have such a stranglehold on the media that few children will ever know the joys of "Nausicaa" or "Spirited Away".

[Norman Bates]

I was going to say the same thing as Trashcan Man, Curmudgeon - and I'm surprised you didn't mention it. There's a whole world of top-class anime out there, not to mention the great 2-D Batman/Superman cartoons that kids can't seem to get enough of. Don't write it off just yet.

[InvisibleWolfMan]

Hi all!

Speaking of top class 2D animation, anyone here seen ROCK & RULE? That is one awesome movie! It's even cooler to know that the group of individuals who did it had never done a full length feature for a major studio before (this was developed for MGM/UA originally in 1978 under the name DRATS! and was originally intended for children! ). The music just is totally awesome. I totally recommend it!

Best Regards,

InvisibleWolfMan