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[Xun]

...Cars 2 isnt even bad. im not a huge Pixar fan (great movies, but i wouldnt watch them a second time) and even i thought Cars 2 was a pretty fun action movie. it seemed to be hated before it released though. an attitude born from everyone's equally misguided dislike of the original.

I actually preferred Cars to Cars 2.

It had a lot more charm in my eyes, and I suppose that's why I was disappointed with the sequel.

I didn't feel it was a film aimed at car enthusiasts, but instead aimed directly at kids (more so than the first).

 

[Boss Doggie]

I know people are entitled to their opinion, but this post is soooooo "WUT" worthy.

That dreamworks woman is disgustingly generic. Like a character from the Sims or something. While the Incredibles characters ave a certain style to them. It's more unique, more appealing and as someone mentioned before, actually fit their character/role in the movie. I especially like the design of Mirage.

So essentially uniquely bad? While I don't mind the designs in Incredibles I consider Megamind's much better. Hell, she fits the "Lois Lane" character archetype. She's not a secret agent or a superhero.

 

[SKINNER!]

Dat ending

Question about the Waltz with Bashir ending:

Spoiler

The part where the movie changes from animation to real-life footage. Did they ever translate/subtitle what the screaming woman says? Was it dubbed in English in the dubbed version? It wasn't subtitled when I watched it but - thankfully - I was able to understand what she says. I'm just curious to see if the impact of that scene would be different to a person who didn't know what she was screaming about

 

[Agent Unknown]

I'm pretty sure the OP intended to refer to CG animated movies, not all animated movies. I'm not one to put them on a pedestal, but they're definitely the most consistent in that field by a large margin.

Again, yes, thank you. I'll admit I could have been more balanced in making the OP but I love all types and forms of animated films. Just not big on ones that are obnoxious, over commercialized and feature overpaid celeb voice actors who don't care (will again point to my IMHO well deserved rant on Chris Rock).

If I get a chance, tomorrow I will try to post some pics from my deluxe, import Nausicaa scrapbook if anyone is interested.

 

[Boss Doggie]

Again, yes, thank you. I'll admit I could have been more balanced in making the OP but I love all types and forms of animated films. Just not big on ones that are obnoxious, over commercialized and feature overpaid celeb voice actors who don't care (will again point to my IMHO well deserved rant on Chris Rock).

To which I still disagree. You can still have celebrity voice actors and have one of the best animated CGI films ever (KFP). Hell, even your beloved Pixar is guilty of that (*cough*Cars, to some extent Toy Story, and even what I consider the best Pixar movie - Monsters, Inc.)

Also, what is over-commercialized? Merchandising is a huge part of the flicks regardless of what studio it came from. Even Pixar is guilty of that.

 

[Agent Unknown]

I wonder how many DreamWorks fans are also Android fans.

Kidding!

Spoiler

sorta

I see what you did there.

Consider yourself reminded.

Consider your post seriously noted. I actually plan on watching it in the near future with a friend I recently recommended it to.

 

[MidnightCowboy]

How to Train Your Dragon is typical Dreamworks quality: poor.

 

[Agent Unknown]

To which I still disagree. You can still have celebrity voice actors and have one of the best animated CGI films ever (KFP).

As I said in a previous post, the only two actors in KFP's main cast (haven't seen 2) who bothered to make the audience care that they were in the movie were Black and Hoffman. Chan, Jolie and even David Cross were BORING and complete wastes of time and money in that movie.

Hell, even your beloved Pixar is guilty of that (*cough*Cars, to some extent Toy Story, and even what I consider the best Pixar movie - Monsters, Inc.)

Still haven't seen Cars. Crystal and Goodman were awesome in Monsters Inc, heck it's some of their best work. Again, as I said before I don't have a problem with celeb voices in animated films. It's schmuck celebs getting paid millions of dollars, just showing up to get their paycheck when actual veteran animation voice actors could do a much better job. I'll say it again, big studio animated films should in most cases go for no more than two big name actors then have real animation VAs fill out the rest of the cast. That way they'd still have their celeb marketing buzz to capitalize on, they'd save millions of dollars, and folks who actually need a paycheck would be getting well deserved work and enriching the films with their experience. This trend could also work for Pixar movies.

Also, what is over-commercialized? Merchandising is a huge part of the flicks regardless of what studio it came from. Even Pixar is guilty of that.

Not talking about toys. It's about tone. Appealing to the MTV crowd. Folks who need innuendo in order to make themselves feel better they're "watching a cartoon with their kids" and lame, obvious jokes over well written humor.

 

[GhostWriter24]

Cars is a classic piece of Americana and has a ton of fucking heart. I can't attest to Cars 2 but all the Cars 1 haters need to hop aboard the HTTYD or Shrek hate bandwagon, because those films were absolute drivel.

 

[Boss Doggie]

As I said in a previous post, the only two actors in KFP's main cast (haven't seen 2) who bothered to make the audience care that they were in the movie were Black and Hoffman. Chan, Jolie and even David Cross were BORING and complete wastes of time and money in that movie.

Still haven't seen Cars. Crystal and Goodman were awesome in Monsters Inc, heck it's some of their best work. Again, as I said before I don't have a problem with celeb voices in animated films. It's schmuck celebs getting paid millions of dollars, just showing up to get their paycheck when actual veteran animation voice actors could do a much better job. I'll say it again, big studio animated films should in most cases go for no more than two big name actors then have real animation VAs fill out the rest of the cast. That way they'd still have their celeb marketing buzz to capitalize on, they'd save millions of dollars, the films would be better for it, plus folks who actually need a paycheck would be getting well deserved work.

Not talking about toys. It's about tone. Appealing to the MTV crowd. Folks who need innuendo in order to make themselves feel better they're "watching a cartoon with their kids" and lame, obvious jokes over well written humor.

Actually the Furious Five get more screentime in the second film, so yeah. But Gary Oldman steals the film. That was one of the major complaints in the film yes but then if you look at the film it's not their story.

And as for that celebrity acting in general, while I do agree that they should just hire voice actors for animated films, in general it doesn't really hurt the ones that are good to use them. Most of the time, the films that do suffer from overpaying their celebrities tend to be poor anyway.

As for the tone - I really don't see it. A lot of people do assume that - but I don't see it. Let me think of DW titles that are accused with that: Megamind - not true, if anything it's very comic-nerd aligned more than Incredibles; Monsters vs. Aliens - not true, since if anything it homages the kaijuu histories of US and Japan; Madagascar - that actually IS the point - they are celebrities. Really, the offending ones doing that is Shrek 3 (which unsurprisingly is the worst) and Bee Movie (but that one feels more like a Seinfield Sucks thing than anything).

Cars is a classic piece of Americana and has a ton of fucking heart. I can't attest to Cars 2 but all the Cars 1 haters need to hop aboard the HTTYD or Shrek hate bandwagon, because those films were absolute drivel.

 

[Lord British]

I hated Monsters Vs Aliens so much. Such a grating film.

Surprisingly enjoyed Megamind, and as I've said the original Madasgascar is great fun. I was expecting to hate Kung Fu Panda but it was alright. Not seen HTTYD, heard good things.

 

[Boss Doggie]

MVA is actually a pretty good film. If anything it also pretty much gives a rather feminist film that is enjoyable and not heavy-handed. There's something I like how you actually see the character work her way into being skilled rather than "hurr I'm already skilled because boys are dumb" bullshit.

 

[Messofanego]

Question about the Waltz with Bashir ending:

Spoiler

The part where the movie changes from animation to real-life footage. Did they ever translate/subtitle what the screaming woman says? Was it dubbed in English in the dubbed version? It wasn't subtitled when I watched it but - thankfully - I was able to understand what she says. I'm just curious to see if the impact of that scene would be different to a person who didn't know what she was screaming about

No it wasn't subtitled but I think I got the jist, I might ask my Palestinian friend about what she said. Can you translate it here?

 

[SKINNER!]

No it wasn't subtitled but I think I got the jist, I might ask my Palestinian friend about what she said. Can you translate it here?

Spoiler

Translation:
"My son! Mother! My dear son! The love of my heart."

*cuts away to another woman looking at building debris and then to a woman screaming to the camera*

"Where are the arabs? WHERE ARE THE ARABS? WHERE?" [Refering to other Arab nations]
Video tape this! Video tape this! Video tape all this and take it to the English countries" [Refering to the West]

*cuts to dead bodies*

To me, that really made me feel how terrible we as humans are for allowing crazy shit like this to happen.

 

[Pepboy]

Just finished Rango and found its setting rather disconcerting. At some points the characters are wearing / using objects that are clearly the products of a modern economy and at other times the props seem more like the "table scraps" of human society.

Examples:

Spoiler

The clock on the Mayor's wall as well as the clocktower are human pocket watches, and the bank's water supply seems clearly a human jug. Okay, so these animals are living off the things we left behind? But then the bank has a reptile-sized working clock. Also in the Mayor's office, there is an extremely intricate rug and decorative ceiling. But then the "stained" glass window looks like leftovers from human bottles. It just feels inconsistent, even sloppy.

Even worse, at 35 minutes in, the banker slips on some golf balls in the mayors office. But later we see them playing golf and they play with little bugs. What? Similarly, at 14 minutes, Rango has a dream with rattlesnake tails but the only rattlesnack in the movie has a machine gun tail instead.

At 39 minutes in, there is fruit that is the same relative size as human fruit. Why not just use seeds, berries, or beans? That's what they seem to do at 54 minutes in with the "cactus fruit".

The Mayor has a motorized wheelchair, the bank has electric chandeliers, and the bar scene has motorized fans. But they gather every Wednesday to get water instead of centralized plumbing? Beans wears a wig and has eyelashes. But there's also a giant vending machine in town? If things were made to scale, this would almost certainly be the largest building in town by several flights, but we don't see it when they pull up into town (or in many of the shots). I also find it somewhat strange that the town inhabitants didn't pillage the vending machine for food years ago, although perhaps the remaining food was inedible. The town in general seems like it was made frame-by-frame, rather than a constructed town.

Escaping the bank's water tube didn't make much sense either. Bean spits out the bullet and the glass cracked in a manner hard to believe. Also, why would Rattlesnake Jake be so afraid of the Mayor's pistol? Even if he's out of bullets, they've already established that Rattlesnake Jake has poisonous fangs.

I don't mind anthropomorphic animals in worlds with no humans. Presumably in those settings, animals are intelligent and came across many of the same inventions humanity has. I also don't mind intelligent animals in a world with humans. But if director's go that route, I wish they would pay more attention to the economy presented so I could suspend my disbelief.

 

[Black-Box]

I guess Cars 2 has somewhat opened the floodgate to a backlash against Pixar after a decade of no one saying a bad word against them. But i think they do have the best track record, personal tastes aside

Dreamworks, when they get the right talent on the project, can make equally great films, although you can be sure that any hit they have will eventually be run into the ground by sequels.

Aesthetically, i'm not sure where Pixar is heading nowadays. Brave looks great, but i'd wish they could also make films with smaller budgets where they don't have to be play it safe.

the Pixar hate goes deeper than cars 2, it opened up the hate, because Cars 2 goes back on what Pixar was. They said they would never make a sequel or prequel to a movie. Toy story only had sequels because of a deal they made.

Also Pixar is look at as the greatest studio that can do no wrong

 

[Xun]

the Pixar hate goes deeper than cars 2, it opened up the hate, because Cars 2 goes back on what Pixar was. They said they would never make a sequel or prequel to a movie. Toy story only had sequels because of a deal they made.

Also Pixar is look at as the greatest studio that can do no wrong

IIRC they said they'd only make a sequel/prequel if a story was there.

It's evident with Cars 2 that was a load of bullshit.

I'm not a Pixar hater by any means, but I do think Lasseter has lost his way with power.

 

[Chuckpebble]

Cars is a classic piece of Americana and has a ton of fucking heart. I can't attest to Cars 2 but all the Cars 1 haters need to hop aboard the HTTYD or Shrek hate bandwagon, because those films were absolute drivel.

How could it be anything but? It has Frick and Frack from Car Talk in it. I didn't enjoy Cars 2, felt very much like a merchandising effort.

Saw Rango at a Niece's birthday party, so didn't really get to follow it with all of the kids running around screaming. Looks like I'll have to actually watch it at some point.

 

[Federico_612]

This may be a little off topic, but:

Does a cynic CGI movie for all ages exist? Could one exist?

I don't mean cynic as in angsty.

Because Pixar, Gilbi, DreamWorks, etc. all make idealistic movies.