Support NeoGAF

[NotTheGuyYouKill]

I was re-watching a couple of E3 trailers, and the thought occurred to me: Why doesn't Hollywood or foreign film industries produce CG full length films for a more mature audience?

For example, here is the Assassin's Creed: Revelations trailer and here is the Prey 2 trailer. The CGI work, atmosphere, and feel of these two pieces are really impressive. Are the costs just really prohibitive of something like this? Or is the audience for that just not there?

 

[thetrin]

I wonder if it's just that the audience is just not there, for the same reason there are no American-made mature animated features in theaters (and I don't mean shit like Cool World)

 

[TacticalFox88]

If you look at history, they usually don't do THAT well at the box office. It's simply a money thing.

 

[NomarTyme]

The Assassin Creed trailer was excellent. Best CG trailer I ever watched so far! I'm down for a movie like that.

 

[CFMOORE!]

costly and fewer people would watch them, thus less chance to recoup costs. though i believe a blizzard animated movie would be insanely successful.

 

[lethial]

I always wondered that too. Instead we get crap like talking cars and animals.

 

[BertramCooper]

Animation is extremely expensive, so it makes financial sense to make films that appeal to a wide audience rather than a narrow one.

 

[Lionel Mandrake]

This is why.

Edit:

And this didn't help.

 

[the chris]

I'm assuming that most people in the United States assume that animated movies, no matter the type are for kids. Which is unfortunate because I feel that a lot of comic movies could be a lot better done if they were animated.

 

[3N16MA]

Robert Zemeckis.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

Final Fantasy TSW nearly killed the genre. As stupid as Advent Children was, if it had come out first the industry would have had a lot more confidence in CGI-feature length stuff for teens/adults.

I actually liked Beowulf. Nine was decent. It's just really hard to justify $100-$200 million budgets when you don't have the guaranteed audience/legs/DVD sales that comes with family films.

Edit:

Now that I think about it, Avatar is more or less a full-length CGI film. Half of the cast isn't even real, and nearly all of the backdrops are rendered. Same with Tron Legacy.

 

[Trakdown]

Mature animated features in general haven't done well in this country, outside of a few exceptions.

 

[Big One]

There isn't a market for it. Never has, never will. That's American animation for you.

 

[bangai-o]

Japan has more than few mature cg's.

 

[JoJoShabadoo]

That's the sequel to Prey? Looks like an entirely different series.

 

[GhaleonQ]

There are (though more shorts than features, because shorts > features). We just don't get them on Region 1 DVD or in theaters.

 

[Finaika]

Japan has more than few mature cg's.

Both Appleseeds & Vexille are pretty mature.

 

[SCULLIBUNDO]

Both Appleseeds & Vexille are pretty mature.

Both are also pretty terrible.

 

[Neuromancer]

Thought Beowulf was ok but it bombed.

Years ago someone was supposed to make a very mature CG movie about Frankenstein but I guess it got canned.

Personally I'd be thrilled if someone would make them. I find Pixar movies painful to watch, even though they look good. Dream works is really hit or miss too.

 

[bangai-o]

pencils are better than cg anyway

 

[katsubento]

This is why.

I was thinking the same thing. Before it was released, there was such a hype about it, and it made the TV news and magazine articles. Then it bombed, was pretty crappy, and everyone was pretty much ashamed of it.

Bye bye, major Hollywood future CGI films.

 

[Mechazawa]

Full blown CGI is jarring for a lot of people. It's easier to sell when you're working with distilled, brief sequences(and where, in the case of Revelations, so much emphasis is being placed on the music)

That said, I really fucking loved Beowulf.

 

[Count Dookkake]

Parents need to stop taking their brood to the latest talking animal turd. Maybe things will change then.

 

[Flying_Phoenix]

Outside of Japan, unless its on prime time TV and meant to be funny in an "adult humor" kind of way, its considered for babies.

 

[AbsoluteZero]

Would have been interesting to see how the general public would have responded to something like "The Hangover" if it was completely animated.

 

[sans_pants]

expensive to make, probably wont make that money back

 

[flawfuls]

Well there was Mary and Max somewhat recently, but that still looks like it's for kids.

There are also CG anime, but I haven't seen a single one that was good. The new Berserk Movies and Yoshitaka Amano's upcoming movie Deva Zan look promising though.

 

[a Master Ninja]

Now that I think about it, Avatar is more or less a full-length CGI film.

Yep.

 

[sans_pants]

legit animation shits all over cg for now anyway

 

[victreeb3l]

the assassins creed trailer looks so fucking realistic in some parts, holy shit dare i say its better than blizzard cinematics

 

[GCX]

legit animation shits all over cg for now anyway

You're underestimating all the hard work CG animators are doing by saying CG animation isn't "legit animation". For example, just pay attention to all the subtle character animation in a movie like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJNvZRAmeqY

If that's not legit animation I don't know what is.

 

[IrrelevantNotch]

Because movies can't be all action sequences. The characters need to talk to each other. And when realistic CGI people talk it looks ridiculous.

 

[sans_pants]

You're underestimating all the hard work CG animators are doing by saying CG animation isn't "legit animation".

For example, just pay attention to all the subtle character animation in a movie like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJNvZRAmeqY

If that's not legit animation I don't what is.

relax guy its just a way of differentiation. once computers can recreate miyazaki movies or akira then ill care

 

[ReiGun]

There was some cg movie I remember watching on mtv2 back when the channel was just starting. Can't remember the name of it for the life of me, though.

 

[SHAZOOM]

the assassins creed trailer looks so fucking realistic in some parts, holy shit dare i say its better than blizzard cinematics

To be honest, Blizzards CG was king of the hill back in 2001-2003, but so many other places make good CG now, Blizzard just seems to get lost in the crowd.

On topic, American Film Audience is very comfortable with categorizing films. CG adult/mature themed films don't really compute since most folks think of CG as PIXAR or Videogame Cutscenes. I think it would probably be more progressive to go with CG short films first to test the waters at Film Festivals, then segway into full length once the critics are more accepting of the medium.

 

[Flying_Phoenix]

Now that I think about it, Avatar is more or less a full-length CGI film. Half of the cast isn't even real, and nearly all of the backdrops are rendered. Same with Tron Legacy.

Weren't those films done via motion capture? Then again that would just be the main characters.

Regardless the purpose of that CGI was to trick the eye to think it is seeing real-life, not using animation and art as expression.

 

[CornBurrito]

Animation age ghetto applies to CG as well.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AnimationAgeGhetto

 

[JGS]

This is why.

http://i.imgur.com/oILlU.jpg[IMG]

Edit:

And this didn't help.

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/UEYDN.jpg[IMG][/QUOTE]
Beowulf wasn't a flop or even critically drubbed. It was probably the best reason for adult animation to come around in a long time.

CGI is so expensive it just makes more sense to do live action if the rating is going to be higher than PG or you're not a superstar director.

 

[SHAZOOM]

Weren't those films done via motion capture? Then again that would just be the main characters.

Regardless the purpose of that CGI was to trick the eye to think it is seeing real-life, not using animation and art as expression.

The thing is, the general public doesn't care about "art as expression". They want to be engaged by either theme, story or characters, but the means to do that isn't as important.

I mean, people like XKCD because the writing is engaging to their taste, but no one really care that the art is just stick figures.

 

[Flying_Phoenix]

The thing is, the general public doesn't care about "art as expression". They want to be engaged by either theme, story or characters, but the means to do that isn't as important.

I mean, people like XKCD because the writing is engaging to their taste, but no one really care that the art is just stick figures.

To explain further, Avatar was meant to look as realistic as possible so that people wouldn't know what they were watching is CGI. It essentially was just a "special effect" for a live action movie. Quite the opposite of what ever other CGI film does.

 

[Dennis]

Animation is extremely expensive, so it makes financial sense to make films that appeal to a wide audience rather than a narrow one.

This is the correct answer.

 

[SHAZOOM]

To explain further, Avatar was meant to look as realistic as possible so that people wouldn't know what they were watching is CGI. It essentially was just a "special effect" for a live action movie. Quite the opposite of what ever other CGI film does.

Oh, I can agree with that. But like Obsessed said, Animation is going to be associated with All Ages/Family Friendly/30 Minute Toy Commercials. They can make CG mature films in the Hollywood, they just don't know who to market/sell merchandise to, so they just don't do it for the sake of saving some cash.

Its a sad situation all around really.

 

[jett]

This is why.

Edit:

And this didn't help.

Those are shitty movies, that's why they failed.

 

[Lance Bone Path]

Well, there's Tekken Blood Vengeance, which is out on July 26th, but I have to wonder if the thread is an attempt at stealth-marketing.

 

[AbsoluteZero]

And this didn't help.

This is essentially 100% motion capture, to the point where I don't even call it animation anymore.

 

[genjiZERO]

it's weirds me out how the word "mature" doesn't actually mean mature when it comes to media. Anyway, I'd say there aren't mature (the second meaning) for the same reason there aren't too many mature videogames, the least-common-denominator of the demographics that spend money in that area just aren't that interested mature content.

 

[Black_Stride]

In the minds of the average human.

Animated = For Kids

For Kids movie rated M = WTF, so its for kids but my kids cant watch it?

 

[XiaNaphryz]

Animation is extremely expensive, so it makes financial sense to make films that appeal to a wide audience rather than a narrow one.

Sums it up really. OP, you're going to have to hope for CG movies that mix in an older tone with more dialogue slanted towards the older crowd but are still PG rated like Rango. That one could've likely pushed a bit further and gone PG-13, but no studio's going to risk that for a while. Someday a studio will test the waters and see if a PG-13 CG feature is viable or not, and depending how that goes the rest of the industry will react.

 

[wenis]

CG is for little kids...just like cartoons and anime.

for babies.

 

[Htown]

Whatever, the next Avatar movie is going to come out and it'll be entirely CG and American audiences will all be on board.

I mean Avatar was 90% CG anyway. And this time they've already kicked the humans off the planet.