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Terrible CGI movies


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Every once in a while, a movie studio makes a movie that is so bad, they figure it will probably be better that no critic sees it before it's release date, as the actual reviews would look even worse than sinking to the level of not having any reviews upon release. Gigli didn't even do this. The last movie I cna remember that did was From Justin To Kelly. But now...there is Doogal.

 

Doogal is a CGI movie with the voice talents of Chevy Chase, Judi Dench, Jimmy Fallon, Whoopi Goldberg, William H. Macy, Ian McKellen, Kylie Minogue, Kevin Smith, and Jon Stewart, and evidently, it is proof that a few years ago, studio were greenlighting ANYthing CGI. Saddest of all, this atrocious looking Doogal is a Weinstein Picture. The fuckers that were able to make Pulp Fiction a mainstream $200 million plus success (not an easy task) and their new company are behind this.

 

I just saw the trailer to Disney's The Wild. It looks exactly like Madagascer except with with realistic CGI models of the animals (not Chuck Jonesesque) and not as funny, which is pretty bad, because Madagascar was a big lame disappointment. Over The Hedge and Open Season look like rip-offs of each other, if that's even possible. I heard Hoodwinked was really bad, and Chicken Little's reviews were mixed, but more importantly, all the ads feature throwaway pop culture referecnces, and I seem to remember "Who Let the Dogs Out" playing in one commercial, a sure-fire sign of suck.

 

After The Incredibles came out, Shark Tale came out and the CGI landscape has been one atrocity after another. It wasn't long ago that Pixar and Dreamwork dominatignthe scene, all these CGI movie were really good. Dinosaur was crap, but it was typical Disney, Ice Age was only bad when compared to Monsters Inc or Shrek. Mostly it was all good. I remember 2 1/2 years ago I started a poll. For best CGI movie and it was almot all quality. The same poll now would be half suck and in about a year, I suspect mostly suck.

 

If it weren't for my limitless faith in Pixar, It's start to lose faith that cars was going to be any good.

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Every once in a while, a movie studio makes a movie that is so bad, they figure it will probably be better that no critic sees it before it's release date, as the actual reviews would look even worse than sinking to the level of not having any reviews upon release. Gigli didn't even do this. The last movie I cna remember that did was From Justin To Kelly.

 

It's actually a more common practice than you think. Probably about 80% of contemporary horror movies are released without being screened for critics because studios know that the reviews will be bad and theirs isn't an audience that is interested in reviews, anyway. Many movies have done it. I think Underworld Evolution was released without critic screenings. But yes, it's the sign of a movie that even the studio doesn't have much faith in, so it's rarely good.

 

But yeah cg films are getting worse and worse. It's all because a few years ago, coincidentally, studios were putting out some really good cg films while at the same time releasing really bad hand-drawin films. Audiences, with a surprising amount of taste, flocked to the good ones and ignored the bad ones. And the studios, never ones to admit a failing on their part, decided that the reason was because of the medium. Jeffrey Katzenberg of Dreamworks called from on high that hand-drawn animation was dead! Disney actually closed down and laid off all of its traditional animators! The message was sent throughout Hollywood - make a computer animated movie and people will come. (contradictions to the theory like Lilo & Stitch and Final Fantasy were promptly ignored) That's why we're saddled with some of the crap we're getting now. Studios started churning them out for quick money. And while, artistically, many of these films are turning out fantastic (Shark Tale actually had some phenominal animation, Madagascar had great character design) the story decisions that are being made on high are simple-minded money-making ideas...ie, fill the movie with as many pop culture references as possible, that's what the teenies love. The sad thing is, it'll get worse before it gets better. Do you have any idea how many cgi movies are coming out this year? Even I've lost count. It's an insane amount and they all look sub par (except The Wild, which has to be funny because Eddie Izzard is in it)

 

Ironically, I think it'll be the Pixar people who will bring quality traditional animation back from the dead, as Steve Jobs, John Lasseter and the rest of the Pixar group are insisting that Disney re-establish its hand-drawn studio and start making movies again. Maybe once other studios see the success of Disney/Pixar cg and hand-drawn animated movies they'll finally realize that the probably was the quality, not the medium.

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Do you have any idea how many cgi movies are coming out this year? Even I've lost count. It's an insane amount and they all look sub par (except The Wild, which has to be funny because Eddie Izzard is in it)

Well, if you look at the voice talent, most of these cgi movie should be good, but their not. I think no one voice actor (hell, no six voice actors) can make a bad cgi movie good. And the trailer to The Wild looks just as bad as all the rest, with much better animation and character models. I hold out hope for Cars and none else. I have no faith in Dreamworks either, as Shark Tale (coming out only a few months after Shrek 2) was evidence that they care more about churning em out as fast as possible. Pixar has 3 to 4 movies in development and any given time too, but they spend upwards of 7 years on each one, and you can tell they are perfectionists over there, and John Lassester and everyone else at Pixar has said a million times on his DVD extras, their #1 job is to tell a good story, and they have everytime. I'll be honest, the Cars trailers look spiffy, but if it weren't Pixar, I'd assume it was going to be a disappointment. I'm prepare to have my innocence raped going into that movie.

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Doogal is a French movie known as The Magic Roundabout in the UK, possibly as something else in France, it's based on an odd acid trip of a kids show from the seventies, that's mostly well respected among animation enthusiasts and potheads alike. I haven't seen the movie, but it apparently has nothing in common with the TV series apart from the appearance of the characters, but it might be more in tune with the original French version, I have no idea, I'm more familiar with the re dubbed Anglicised version.

 

This seems to be an Americanised dub this time around, with a new sassy script from what I can tell, though I'm pretty sure Kylie Minouge was in the UK version too I wonder if she rerecorded or if they just left her dialogue untouched.

 

The Wild, which has to be funny because Eddie Izzard is in it

 

Have you seen the fucking Avengers movie? I don't know many people who have, but I know I did.

 

The Wild has too much in common with Madagascar for it to be a coincidence, it seems from the trailer they are trying to play up the parts that resemble it. It's like Nemo and Shark's tale and A Bug's Life and Antz(which I thought was alright) except Disney usually led the way in that regard.

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I actually found the Incredibles excellent. It had all the elements of a good live-action movie: good acting, genuinely exciting action scenes, likeable characters and it was the least patronising kids film ive seen from disney.

 

Lots of CGI movies are good movies in their own right if you set aside the fact theyre CGI I think.

 

Shrek 2 still sucked....badly.

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  • 10 years later...

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