The Worst CGI Kid Films In Recent Memory

[Ladywarrior]

i might as well say it. the movie Food Fight. oh my goodness. >__<

 

[Drtooth]

That and there were barely any martial arts, the camera shots were bizarre and uncomfortable, the main villains were underplayed despite how ridiculous they looked, April while well written was bland and poorly acted and at times not the brightest blub (which is a shame because Megan Fox is apparently a huge TMNT fan, maybe she just needed better direction?) all the action scenes were just utterly ridiculous, the character designs were a complete mess, Splinter was horrendously portrayed, and there was little to no real emotion or morals, except for when it came out of nowhere and had nothing to do with the plot.

Bay was just the producer. The problem with the film was all script. I wouldn't complain about the CGI myself, as that was the one thing they did right. As I've said a million times by now, the decision to focus on April and Eric Sachs was the major problem with the film. The Turtles and Shredder were tossed to the side and felt like guest stars in their own movie. Their moments were actually good, and showed sings of promise, but in the end, it was a lame contagion conspiracy film with the Turtles in it. They didn't even need to be in it, which makes it worse. And I can't even say they intended it to be a conspiracy film and re-purposed it to shove the Turtles awkwardly in it because the writers intended on making a TMNT film with that little focus on the characters.

Then of course there's the fact Eric's character was essentially just there to take away parts from Saki and Baxter Stockman. It's like the only reason they kept Eric in the film was a personal favor to the actor. Originally Eric was Shredder as an inherited title but they pandered to angry complaints of backward race lifts, kept the darn character (again, as a favor to the actor it seems) but also have Saki Shredder sort of in it and remove Stockman completely... thus having Eric take both Saki and Stockman's parts. The part where he was extremely marveled by the existence of the mutant turtles? Proof the writers shoved him into Baxter's role.

But I do applaud the motion capture suits and the actually well done CGI. if only a fraction of the care for the character designs went into writing the script, we would have had something.

 

[AlittleMayhem]

Bay was just the producer. The problem with the film was all script. I wouldn't complain about the CGI myself, as that was the one thing they did right. As I've said a million times by now, the decision to focus on April and Eric Sachs was the major problem with the film. The Turtles and Shredder were tossed to the side and felt like guest stars in their own movie. Their moments were actually good, and showed sings of promise, but in the end, it was a lame contagion conspiracy film with the Turtles in it. They didn't even need to be in it, which makes it worse. And I can't even say they intended it to be a conspiracy film and re-purposed it to shove the Turtles awkwardly in it because the writers intended on making a TMNT film with that little focus on the characters.

Then of course there's the fact Eric's character was essentially just there to take away parts from Saki and Baxter Stockman. It's like the only reason they kept Eric in the film was a personal favor to the actor. Originally Eric was Shredder as an inherited title but they pandered to angry complaints of backward race lifts, kept the darn character (again, as a favor to the actor it seems) but also have Saki Shredder sort of in it and remove Stockman completely... thus having Eric take both Saki and Stockman's parts. The part where he was extremely marveled by the existence of the mutant turtles? Proof the writers shoved him into Baxter's role.

But I do applaud the motion capture suits and the actually well done CGI. if only a fraction of the care for the character designs went into writing the script, we would have had something.

Let's face it, anything that has Bay's name in it, be it director or producer, you know it's not going to be good.

I didn't mind the CGI when it was good but I still think it was too much. I can say the same for the character design. Why did the turtles need all that armour and accessories? Wouldn't that slow them down and cause a lot of noise when they needed to be stealthy as ninjas? Why were they huge and bulking? Why did they have lips and nostrils? The may be mutants but they're still turtles! Why did the Shredder have so many blades? What was up with that outfit? How was he able to move in that thing, let alone fight?

Usually, I'm open to change. We've had many different versions of the turtles and most of them have been good, with a few exceptions. With this one, I can't decided if the plot and changes are more or less confusing than the CGI movie from 2007. Why didn't April show her boss the photo she took of the turtles? Why is Splinter such a ****** in this version? How does he know about Shredder when he never encountered him before? If Sacks and April's dad made the mutegen why does it still have TCRI on it? What happened to Karai? What kind of relationship, if there was any, did she have with the villains?

And omg, we were shown so, so little of the turtles and their friendship with each other and how they work as a family and a team and I know literally nothing of this Shredder omg.

I didn't entirely mind that they tried to show the movie from April's POV for the first part but again, that was too much. In the original, they still kinda did that but they also showed the turtles within the first five minutes and keep a balanced story by having different characters' POV.

I care way too much about this than I should.

 

[Drtooth]

I have to admit, I rather liked the turtle designs, but agree they went overboard with the nostrils and lips. Then again, you look at something like Scooby-Doo or uglier yet, Garfield. That weird "this is how they'd look in real life, except not" hybrid look just... ugh. And I liked the Scooby-Doo movies. They have that low quality to them that they're both too bouncy yet look supposedly realistic, yet you can tell they're cartoons pasted on. And irises where there ain't supposed to be no irises... Strangely, I'm more comfortable with how the Smurfs looked than Garfield, Scooby, and Yogi. And they're ...a little off.

You have to admit, they did not skimp on the Turtles. While the odd addition of armor and buttons and stuff was a little busy and clunky, they had the care to put them on in the first place. I'm ashamed to admit, but I wish NECA or someone would have made high quality sculpted collector's figures, as those details are gone to waste with "if it's not extremely important, it's not getting a paint job" Playmates. Same deal with the Transformers movies. The CGI Autobots and Decepticons have a lot of love in them. They could have half-butted them and the films wouldn't have been any better or worse, but they put so much effort into the CGI effects that it's quite impressive. Too bad neither of these films had better scripts to go along with it.

 

[AlittleMayhem]

You know, it's funny that you brought up Sacks taking up Baxter Stockmans role in the movie, because apparently Stockman was in the movie. He was apparently one of the scientists in his lab. (I just found this out). That kinda...sucks a little but hey! At least he was in one movie....I guess?

 

[Drtooth]

And Stockman had scenes that were actually cut to make room for more Sachs.

Which is very annoying, as heck with Shredder... Stockman's my favorite villain. Well, not so much the 80's cartoon before he turned into a fly. But definitely the comics and other cartoons. I'd say he was the best character in the 2k3 series.

I find it strange that they put a lot of effort into one scene referencing Will Arnett in Arrested Development (he makes a Parmesan and mustard sandwich, itself a layered reference to Martin Mull being in that episode, with something by George Michael playing in the background) when they could have put just a little more into the script. But I tell you what. Even though more film would have meant more screen time for the Turtles and Shredder, it was refreshingly not as long as a standard Transformers movie. I more or less enjoyed Age of Extinction, but the freaking Kade family had too much screentime best left for Hound and the guy Stanley Tucci played.

 

[AlittleMayhem]

I won't lie, I actually cried over Stockman in one of the 2k3 series' darkest episodes (besides SAINW) and he was a despicable character in that show (brilliantly written but hey, still a bad guy). I rarely feel sorry for villains at all but wow that blew me away. And then I look at the New Movie and....so much lost potential....

I wondered what the heck that scene was about. I initially thought it was to emphasise how much of a pathetic guy he is, which both old cartoon lovers and newcomers in the audience already knew. Huh, more you know.

I think Linkara (internet comic reviewer) once summed up the Transformers movies perfectly as 'Too many squishy humans, not enough giant robots'.

 

[Drtooth]

I'm going to say that right off the bat, the new series made me almost entirely forget about the 2k3 series. But I have fond memories of how Stockman was a complete tool, yet didn't deserve Shredder sicking Hun on him until he was gradually reduced to a brain in a jar, yet couldn't feel sorry that much because it was kinda funny. I like how dark they got to the point where he was borderline suicidal. This from the same dubbing company that edited anime so no one ever died. TMNT 2K3 got a way with a crapload of stuff. Well, until that episode. But that's another talk for another day.

I'm sure Stockman's character would have just been Eric's scenes in the lab. I actually like the movie to an extent (obviously, not nearly as much as the first one and the CGI one... about as much as the third and second, maybe in between), but feel the need to keep that one character and one actor just made the whole thing fall apart. Though I give them credit for adding Karai, even though she really was just a mercenary.

But back to the subject of bad CGI films. Strange Magic just completely disappeared as quickly as it arrived, making even less in its opening than the Wizard of Oz thingy last year. The reviews are horrible, I'd tend to think it was worse than the trailers made it out to be. And yet, there are raves about the soundtrack to the point that there's advice that you skip the movie and just by the CD. Now, I can't vouch for this thing, as I didn't see it. Didn't think it looked that bad, and by all means it wasn't as horrible looking as the other Touchstone animated movie that ripped off a Shakespeare play. Kinda liked the character designs on Strange Magic, actually. I guess it's because George Lucas made it well after it was cool to hate him or something.

 

[charlietheowl]

http://www.avclub.com/article/fox-attempting-mold-play-doh-movie-paul-feig-217522

I try to keep somewhat of an open mind with movies, but I have no idea how this could be any good. None whatsoever.

 

[mr3urious]

http://www.avclub.com/article/fox-attempting-mold-play-doh-movie-paul-feig-217522

I try to keep somewhat of an open mind with movies, but I have no idea how this could be any good. None whatsoever.

Trying to get a piece of the pie that The Lego Movie served up, I presume. At least with that brand, there were several universes from different sets to work off of to create their own mishmash of a universe. The only Doh-verse I can think of is Doh Doh Island, and I remember that getting a little stop-motion DTV special.