The Worst CGI Kid Films In Recent Memory

[D'Snowth]

Oy gevalt, as Oscarfan would say.

But then again, not long after the PUSS IN BOOTS spinoff/sidequel from SHREK came out, guess what else was on the shelves in the electronics department? Yep, you guessed it!

 

[Drtooth]

But then again, not long after the PUSS IN BOOTS spinoff/sidequel from SHREK came out, guess what else was on the shelves in the electronics department? Yep, you guessed it!

Yeah... but that had William Shatner in it. It had to be good with him involved. Even on a camp level.

I'm disappointed Discotek media didn't take advantage of Puss in Boots and release the Miyazaki directed film from the 60's at general retail... or even license any of the sequels. That would be a positive use of Mockbuster DTV releases. Luckily, I found Puss in Boots at a convention cheap.

 

[jvcarroll]

I'm going to have to say Hoodwinked Too. The first one had such a fun take on things and some neat stylistic choices even though the animation wasn't that great. I was really looking forward to it and it was terrible. I know the end result is supposedly not the fault of Cory Edwards, but I must admit to feeling queasy with his and Weinstein's ill-fated Fraggle film afterward.

One of the items on the list in the initial post is the most recent Ice Age move. Why? The initial film was fun. I didn't like the first sequel and didn't even bother with the second one. A friend of mine took me to the 4th installment and we enjoyed it. It's not the best animated picture by far, but it doesn't deserve to be on any worst list. That seems more like a personal vendetta than a substantiative one. I've got to admit to liking the latest Madagascar too. Not the best animated film, but fun enough to avoid some sort of worst list stamp. It was a welcome change after Merida's meandering snoozefest.

Okay, I have one more to add to the list. The first Happily Never After. Just truly awful.

 

[D'Snowth]

I think the notion of including the recent Ice Age movie is on the grounds that the franchise itself is clearly being milked for more than it's worth... I THINK that's it, but that's mostly my own opinion, so I can't really speak for others much...

I agree, the initial film was fun at that... it was fun, and it worked well as a stand-alone, one-shot feature; the Meltdown sequel came out at a time where you could still get genuinely excited about sequels because they still weren't an overused gimmick at the time like they are now, but they did so many things wrong with the sequel (making the other creatures look silly and cartoonish, replacing David Newman's appropriately quirky music score with John Powell's ill-fitting cinematic score, all the drop-in characters) it made it unbearable... the third was meh, but since it came out at the exact same time as the LAND OF THE LOST remake, it felt like a ripoff of the former... and by the time the fourth one just came out, it became clear to many that Blue Sky/Twentieth Century Fox were wanting their own Shrek, and Ice Age became their Shrek. Now, from what I've heard, there's speculation there's going to be a FIFTH Ice Age movie... at least, John Leguizamo has been hinting about it, but then again, Tom Hanks was hinting that there would be a fourth Toy Story movie, but we haven't received anymore evidence of that actually happening.

 

[jvcarroll]

I think the notion of including the recent Ice Age movie is on the grounds that the franchise itself is clearly being milked for more than it's worth... I THINK that's it, but that's mostly my own opinion, so I can't really speak for others much...

I agree, the initial film was fun at that... it was fun, and it worked well as a stand-alone, one-shot feature; the Meltdown sequel came out at a time where you could still get genuinely excited about sequels because they still weren't an overused gimmick at the time like they are now, but they did so many things wrong with the sequel (making the other creatures look silly and cartoonish, replacing David Newman's appropriately quirky music score with John Powell's ill-fitting cinematic score, all the drop-in characters) it made it unbearable... the third was meh, but since it came out at the exact same time as the LAND OF THE LOST remake, it felt like a ripoff of the former... and by the time the fourth one just came out, it became clear to many that Blue Sky/Twentieth Century Fox were wanting their own Shrek, and Ice Age became their Shrek. Now, from what I've heard, there's speculation there's going to be a FIFTH Ice Age movie... at least, John Leguizamo has been hinting about it, but then again, Tom Hanks was hinting that there would be a fourth Toy Story movie, but we haven't received anymore evidence of that actually happening.

I think there could be a 4th Toy Story. I respect the series, but to be honest...it never spoke to me. As a kid, I played with other types of puppets, paints and plushes not featured in the line up. Never had a spaceman or a cowboy or a Barbie. I did have a Miss Piggy that I brought to my first day at Kindergarten. That's another story. I do think they should keep a solid lid on the Toy Story franchise. It was a fitting end and they can still explore the characters in short subjects. That offers a lot more creative freedom than they'd have under a tight narrative.

Still, I don't blame companies for churning out sequels. They make money and the purpose of any business is to make money. The last Ice Age film generated $877 million world wide! By that token, should Sony stop making Spider-Man movies that also generate nearly a billion dollars in revenue with each release just because some fanboys think so? Some would agree with that for the sake of artistic integrity. My reply is - of course not! It's very easy for us to tell others how to spend their money, but it would be very hard for any one of us to say no if we were in that position. They should try to make these pictures the best they can be.

Going back to Spider-man for a minute, they did try at something even though the last attempt was a bit muddled and unnecessary. This time around they have a solid plan for three more films. They're building a world and a new narrative. The plan is more comprehensive than a picture-by-picture take on things. Make no mistake. Sony is milking this franchise and I think they're going about it the right way. They're taking Marvel's cue and doing things the right way. Ironically, that's the company they're trying to prevent from taking their character and that's why they must keep releasing Spidey movies every few years for fear of losing their movie rights. Part of me hopes that they'll eventually lapse so that he can fully join the rest of his pals who are now at Disney.

Anyway, the point is that there are sequels and cheapquels. I don't blame studios for making the former.

 

[Drtooth]

I'm going to have to say Hoodwinked Too. The first one had such a fun take on things and some neat stylistic choices even though the animation wasn't that great. I was really looking forward to it and it was terrible. I know the end result is supposedly not the fault of Cory Edwards, but I must admit to feeling queasy with his and Weinstein's ill-fated Fraggle film afterward.

I hear there was horrible backstage shenanigans with Escape from Earth as well. The Weinstein Company only gives a crap about making Oscar Bait films to make them look good, but their conduct outside of that is just horrendous. When they both worked for Disney, they used to buy rights to foreign films just for the pleasure of not releasing them! It's clear they wanted to stall the Fraggle Rock film as far as they could.

Okay... here's what went down with Escape from Earth...

Writer-director Tony Leech and film producer Brian Inerfeld sued the Weinstein Company, claiming they signed a deal whereby they were to receive at least 20 percent of Escape's adjusted gross profit, which they estimated would be worth close to $50 million in back end participation alone. But the film languished in development, and the plaintiffs claimed that the Weinsteins repeatedly unlocked the script, forcing rewrites at least 17 times, which they say "eviscerated" the movie's budget by keeping 200-plus animators on payroll. With the film pushing its budget, the Weinsteins went outside for fresh capital. The Weinstein Company entered into a Funding and Security Agreement with JTM whereby the financiers agreed to provide new money and, in return, get 25 percent of the film's gross receipts and 100 percent of all foreign gross receipts. Leech and Inerfeld were upset, alleging that the agreement had mortgaged their own financial upside and said the Weinsteins advised them that if they wanted their past due money, they would have to agree to this arrangement. Instead, Leech and Inerfeld went on the legal attack against TWC even claiming that they were paid $500,000 in hush money to keep the dispute quiet on the verge of the Weinsteins' The King's Speech Oscar victory in 2011. As for JTM, the plaintiffs demanded a declaratory judgment that their contractual rights to share in the profits were superior to JTM's security interest in profits from the film. Leech and Inerfeld continued to pursue The Weinstein Company directly.
On February 15, 2013, the same day the film was released, in a document filed in the New York Supreme Court, lawyers for both sides filed a motion of discontinuance in the case, effectively ending it. No details of the settlement were made available but because the motion was filed “with prejudice” both sides will be paying their own legal costs.

OUCH! Yeah, I have no doubt that Corey had nothing to do with Hoodwinked 2 sucking just reading that. I really hope that these fat failures go bankrupt.

 

[Drtooth]

I think there could be a 4th Toy Story. I respect the series, but to be honest...it never spoke to me. As a kid, I played with other types of puppets, paints and plushes not featured in the line up. Never had a spaceman or a cowboy or a Barbie. I did have a Miss Piggy that I brought to my first day at Kindergarten. That's another story. I do think they should keep a solid lid on the Toy Story franchise. It was a fitting end and they can still explore the characters in short subjects. That offers a lot more creative freedom than they'd have under a tight narrative.

The Toy Story franchise is best left to shorts and TV specials at this point. They've basically done all they can do for films and the characters. They have a genuinely happy ending. Anything else would just be unnecessary. The films series dealt with serial escalation, there's no where left to go without being redundant. Besides, Pixar is best left to coming up with one shot originals for the time being. They have one more sequel, but thankfully no more announcements since then.

Still, I don't blame companies for churning out sequels. They make money and the purpose of any business is to make money. The last Ice Age film generated $877 million world wide! By that token, should Sony stop making Spider-Man movies that also generate nearly a billion dollars in revenue with each release just because some fanboys think so?

The thing about the Ice Age movies is that they get better at storytelling all the while worse with the stories.

Of course, with Spider-Man, once you hit a brick wall for the franchise, you can always start over. The reboot was all about money and the directors and writers overpricing themselves so a fourth movie would be too expensive to produce. And we're all the better for it, since so much meddling turned a sure fire hit into a movie that no one liked, and there fore, no matter how much the film made, there was no way those same people were going to see another Executive Meddled fourth film. I'd assume the toy companies and Marvel would have wanted 5 or more villains shoe horned in. I wouldn't doubt that everyone involved with Spidey 3 purposely priced themselves out of the movie because none of them liked working on the third one.

Ice Age can't do that. You're stuck with the characters you have. 4 may have made a lot of money, but who's to say that at some point the public isn't just going to get tired of the franchise? What if they make a fifth on and no one wanted to see it? Blue Sky can make just as much money with a new project as it can with a franchise. Dreamworks was smart. They had at least 7 Shrek films planned, and when it was realized that they can't make the sorry for himself Ogre not formulaic for the lame third film, they made a closing fourth film, and other than a TV special and the Puss in Boots spinoff, we've never seen that character ever again. But Dreamworks has other franchises now, so it doesn't matter.

 

[D'Snowth]

Indeed, I'm glad they ended Shrek when they did... by the time we would have gotten to number seven, we would have been sick of it all, and would have been glad to see it end... number four felt tired as it was, so imagine how number seven would have felt.

 

[Drtooth]

I really think four was a nice tribute to the franchise. There were some good concepts in three, but they didn't push them far enough so they could fill the film with Donkey and Puss bickering. At least with the fourth film, you see that Shrek becomes completely hypocritical and ruins everything due to his "why Me?" attitude. Not to mention the other Ogres. It felt like a different interpretation of the character, and all the more it made it a better film. Plus, no fart jokes and insanely less pop culture references. It felt like a more mature Shrek film.

 

[D'Snowth]

And it was an interesting point they made to make Shrek smaller compared to the other ogres, in contrast to him always being the biggest character in the other movies.

But, like I said before: number two was the best of the series (at least I think so) - the story flowed well and it was a well-executed twist on the old "meet the family" plot, they included only a small number of the key supporting characters from the first movie instead of trying to cram all the minor fairy tale creatures in there, the new characters really served a purpose to the story rather than just being there oozing Drop-In Character syndrome, and all and all, it was a fun movie. Number three was okay, but it was really mostly a laugh fest, one cheap laugh after another (some genuinely funny, some not so much)... and thanks to merchandising, the revelation of Shrek and Fiona becoming parents to triples was ruined.