Lions and penguins and ants oh my! This year at the cinema there’s one type of movie that has been very busy; animation. I happen to like slasher flicks a bit more that the child’s play of animation but there is no denying that there has been quite a good market for movies about cute, fuzzy animals who learn life lessons and fight bullies.
Problem is, the giant wave of cartoon characters this year is watering down the grosses on any given animated movie, since there is so much to choose from. The folks over at yahoonews.com give us this:
Ten years ago, Hollywood released as few as three or four animated movies a year, with Disney the only steady player. This year, 16 films are expected to be eligible for the Academy Award for feature-length animation, only the second time in the six-year history of the animated Oscar that there were enough movies for a full field of five nominees, rather than the usual three.
There’s been a wonderful selection of films and it’s encouraging to see so many people getting into animation,” said “Flushed Away” co-director David Bowers. “Not all the films made as much money as people hoped. I think in a couple of years we’ll maybe see fewer animated films. Studios being more cautious.”
As a filmmaker doing these, you certainly wish it was back to the day when it was just DreamWorks and Pixar going head to head. It makes them feel more special and more of an event,” Over The Hedge co-director Karey Kirkpatrick said. “On the flip side, having that many, it certainly keeps you on your toes to do your best and make yours exceptional.”
With all of the toon flicks in 2006 this is going to be a very exciting year for animation at the Oscars. I’m hoping that one of the cartoons with a decent story wins. It seems that the animation world is falling victim to the same dilemma that all the giant action adventure movies have suffered from in recent years.
Too much flash, not enough story. Like with Happy Feet, good music and great animation can only take you so far, and without a proper and interesting story the audience is going to feel ripped off. And that is a shame considering the costs of animation.
The problem is that there only a certain amount of appropriate stories for children to watch. With so many flicks fighting each other for the audience the stories become less important that the concept, dancing penguins, bear brothers and escaped zoo creatures sometimes sound a lot better in a pitch than they do on screen. Cartoons are geared towards the very young going up towards age ten and their parents. So to tell a fresh and entertaining story, have it age apropriate, and make the parents laugh as well is quite difficult.
One thing is certain in my mind, the animals have got to go. Bambi needs to leave the building. The furry creatures have been played to death. My favorite cartoon this year was Monster House, it was about kids and a scary house, it was fresh and fun and more importantly it would have worked as a non animated movie.
If animators want to continue getting kids and their parents out to see movies they have to start thinking about the whole package, animation, voices, characters, music and story.
Hopefully the Oscar voters will ignore flashy concepts and think big picture as well.
Babz, I definitely agree that these computer animated movies are all style and no substance. Sort of like Final Fantasy: Spirits Within – but worse. And again, I agree that these movies are not doing a good job in luring us into their worlds. When I watched The Lion King, or hell, even Mulan, I felt like I was part of their landscape. These computer animated movies are relying too heavily on capturing attention with pretty graphics (sort of like console gaming).
Great post, Sharon.
The last great animated movies were Finding nemo and Monsters Inc. After that… I lost track.
We don’t hear good music anymore, nor are we swept up into that story like how we used to be, watching Aladdin and Lion King and The Little Mermaid and many more Disney animated films.. even Anastasia was better than the hoardes of these 3Ds.
Robin Williams as Genie, Elton John songs to accompany the movie.. Remember how it was? Nowadays these 3Ds are the same as those movies that glorifies CG (i.e. Van Helsing), all looks and no substance.
I’m 20, and I’ll glady go see an animated flick. However, the new flicks really don’t hold a candle to some of the stuff Disney released ten or so years ago. Yeah, they’re cute, but once you leave the theater, you totally forget about it. I don’t know anybody who can quote Ice Age, but everybody knows a line or two from The Lion King or Beauty and the Beast. The last time I was really jazzed about a cartoon was Nemo, and that was a couple of years ago.
Limus, you are an ignorant asshole
First of all, it’s a she. Yeah buddy, your skills of observation are really keen. Please lecture us some more oh intelligent one.
Secondly, bold type in articles is an old and widley used tool to hilight certain ideas, points and other things. Newspapers and magazines do the same thing with oversized type in paragraphs. Bolding is just anohter way to do the same thing.
So to sum up: Limus is an ignorant asshole with no observation skills who trolled in here to just bitch and see his on type on screen and not to add anything to thread.
Good article Sharon. Fuck that loser.
I loved “Monster House”, but my two favorites this year are “Cars” and the hilarious “Flushed Away”. I saw it yesterday and laughed straight through. If we just let Pixar and Aardman make animated films, I’ll be content.
Monster House was the best story (and original), but also some of the computer work was so good it almost had that feeling of a
“real” stop motion animation film set.
PS: mainly the hosts of this site use bold type when pulling quotes.
Remember the old days when TYPING ALL CAPS WAS A FORM OF SHOUTING.
And Sharon is a girl not a he. I don’t think she meant to be
coming across as rude.
Why does this moron feel it necessary to bold certain paragraphs. Is he making us aware when he is especially clever? Seriously, what a arrogant ass.
thats why i think happy feet might not do as well as people think…I think even little kids are tired of 3d animated animals…..
I agree with you on Monster House Sharon, it was the best animated movie this year bar none. They are getting terrible stale, I really can’t stand most of them.