The Worst CGI Kid Films In Recent Memory

[mr3urious]

Speaking of which, I found a press-release from 2005 when they announced a pact with RichCrest (which mentioned Arthur's Missing Pal). They actually started off with a three-movie deal, including a film based on a book by the author of Shrek.

A Get-Along Gang movie was also planned under their partnership, but those plans have since vaporized. Foodfight, unfortunately, did come to pass many years later in spite of invisible forces Elmo-bent on stopping it.

No doubt, the next good kids' movie on their hands will be the upcoming MLP:FiM movie.

I'm still nervous about that one even though there are many promising signs such as the same writers and voice cast on board, along with a live orchestral score (fingers still crossed for an upgrade to full hand-drawn animation with a level of quality akin to the '80s Transformers movie ). An early November release date ahead of The Grinch and Coco is looking good, too, though that is still subject to change as we're still a long ways away from that release period.

 

[Drtooth]

How about something high budget and professional?

I try very hard to be more open minded when it comes to these sort of things. For all the whining I did about stuff like Smurfs, Turbo, and even Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (the second movie is far superior), I kinda enjoyed them.

But I really don't know about this...

The fact they used the awful "Whip and Nae Nae" song that was only popular and culturally relevant for a week during summer last year aside, this...

sigh.

What happened to the pretty much finished B.O.O? That thing disappears completely off schedule, but this cheap little Smurfs ripoff gets fast tracked? Still, I supposed this could have been worse. Tim "let's ruin Muppets From Space" Hill was set to direct in the obvious Alvin and the Chipmunks sort of way. It really sucks that Dreamworks had a rise of high quality films followed by some questionable, but not all together bad films to just make a crappy thing like this. Maybe the license was about to run out and they Dragon Ball Evolutioned this into existence? I'm going to skip this one. It just...really looks like something in the vein of their bad old days Shark Tale type films.

 

[mr3urious]

Still, I supposed this could have been worse. Tim "let's ruin Muppets From Space" Hill was set to direct in the obvious Alvin and the Chipmunks sort of way.

Though Tim Hill is no longer involved in it this time.

 

[Drtooth]

Though Tim Hill is no longer involved in it this time.

Kinda said that. But yeah. When the film was announced years ago, it was clearly done to cash in off the successful first Smurfs movie before the second one flopped. I can basically see what they would have done. It was totally going to be a hybrid film and it was totally going to be a knockoff of the Smurfs movie. Here it comes off as a ripoff of the Smurfs completely.

If anyone remembers the 80's and the horrid Smurf knockoffs the networks insisted upon. Remember how insufferably cute they were, as if to say we're copying the wrong aspects of the show. Essentially the same thing here only replace Smurfs cartoon with Smurfs movie and cute with 'tude. And it's obvious the Smurf movie was made to be a knockoff of the surprise success of the Chipmunks film. So essentially one of the guys involved with this stupid trend in kid's movie was assigned to make a photocopy of a photocopy.

Now, I don't want to get deeply "Awwwwdisisgonnasucksomuch! Ooooohhhh I hate it already" because I could just as easily wind up collecting their cereal boxes and kid's meal promos come November 6th and feel like an idiot about not liking it. There's not really much to speak of so far beyond dumb concept based on a license that was going to expire and typical kiddy CGI film teaser crap. I'm not keeping much of an open mind, though. I'll wait for the first trailer that actually shows something to say anything. But so far, that's about 10 bucks Dreamworks won't get from me.

 

[mr3urious]

Kinda said that. But yeah. When the film was announced years ago, it was clearly done to cash in off the successful first Smurfs movie before the second one flopped. I can basically see what they would have done. It was totally going to be a hybrid film and it was totally going to be a knockoff of the Smurfs movie. Here it comes off as a ripoff of the Smurfs completely.

Yeah, at least it's all-animated this time.

 

[Muppy]

How about something high budget and professional?

I try very hard to be more open minded when it comes to these sort of things. For all the whining I did about stuff like Smurfs, Turbo, and even Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (the second movie is far superior), I kinda enjoyed them.

But I really don't know about this...

I think this looks good lol

 

[Drtooth]

I'm just disappointed that this was fast tracked while B.O.O. seems to have been "shelved" or in other words, pretty much flung aside to be forgotten about because they're still taking the low yields of Rise of the Guardians- Peabody and Sherman poorly.

I don't so much think this looks good or bad so much as it has the potential at best to be decent and at worst be just an embarrassing project that feels 10 years out of date. It's obvious they got stuck with the license for a Troll movie (that they actually purchased in 2010, probably just as the Smurfs movie was announced), and they wanted to get their money's worth out of it. It sure as heck looks like an Oscar winner compared to whatever the Tim Hill live action hybrid would have been. And it does have an impressive cast. I did some more research on this and it's partially based on a Terry Pratchett novel (?!) so it may just surprise me.

Also, a quick look at their Netflix projects seems to suggest they've already created a cartoon series based on the show called "Trollhunters." If nothing else, there may be a decent quality cartoon show based on this.

Still, I find this a major step back for them. I can certainly hope this proves me wrong and all.

 

[mimitchi33]

...while The Land Before Time gets a new sequel coming out next month, after the last one came out barely over eight years ago!

I'm guessing they're doing it to cash in on Jurassic World and The Good Dinosaur, and we all know how much of a bomb the latter was-I nearly fell asleep during that film (the guy behind me was snoring...and to think I had to deal with a mom screaming "Oh, f---!" at least 5 times during Inside Out!), some of the visuals and talk of dead animals grossed me out...and the berry scene gave me nightmares.

I'm pretty sure at this point, no one under the age of 25 (and that's being generous with my estimation) has even seen the original. Took them long enough just to make it a TV series (what they should have been doing), but it clearly wasn't successful by the time it came out after all those sequels.

You would be surprised to find out that's wrong-I'm nearly eighteen and I've seen the original Land Before Time as a kid multiple times. And I remember that TV series-didn't Cartoon Network take it off after a month or two and replace it with Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends reruns or something? I only watched it once when I had off from school because Little Einsteins (don't judge me, I didn't know better back then-it wasn't until I got into Pokemon that I snapped out of the toddler show phase) was replaced by a movie I had already seen, as part of a block that also included Baby Looney Tunes, Krypto the Superdog and The Mr. Men Show. If CN were to show it today, they would not even have it on for a week so that they can show more Teen Titans Go! (Ugh...)

So I found out that Ken Katsumoto was a producer of Norm of the North. Though IMDB doesn't mention it, he was also executive producer of one of Lionsgate's earlier CG efforts, Arthur's Missing Pal. Anyone else remember that?

I saw it when Kidtoons screened it years ago. Kidtoons was also the way I saw the My Little Pony films from The Princess Promenade to A Very Pony Place, as well as the Holly Hobbie thing they did. I wanted to see Oopsy Does It! (a Care Bears film), but we went on vacation the week it was supposed to play in theaters. I remember that the night I saw AMP in theaters, we watched Aquamarine with my cousins, but that's another story.
Also, Lionsgate distributed one of my favorite childhood movies, Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie, and compared to AMP, it still holds up and has great animation.

What happened to the pretty much finished B.O.O? That thing disappears completely off schedule, but this cheap little Smurfs ripoff gets fast tracked? Still, I supposed this could have been worse. Tim "let's ruin Muppets From Space" Hill was set to direct in the obvious Alvin and the Chipmunks sort of way. It really sucks that Dreamworks had a rise of high quality films followed by some questionable, but not all together bad films to just make a crappy thing like this. Maybe the license was about to run out and they Dragon Ball Evolutioned this into existence? I'm going to skip this one. It just...really looks like something in the vein of their bad old days Shark Tale type films.

I heard that Dreamworks cancelled BOO because they were worried about it being overshadowed in popularity by Inside Out...and if they had released it, it would have been a huge bomb for that reason! The merchandise was sold out for weeks during the summer, particularly Bing Bong's merchandise, which became the must-have toy of the holiday season, to the point where people fought in stores over it, the movie is chosen for many local movie nights here, kids watch it in their cars on portable DVD players, quotes from the movie became memes, the DVD sold out on the first day of release, the list goes on and on...

 

[Drtooth]

They didn't so much cancel it so much as put it on a permanent hiatus. Really sucks they couldn't have released that film over Thanksgiving instead of this ugly movie based on a 1990's fad based on a 1960's fad.

Maybe if their projects were stronger, they wouldn't keep losing imaginary money on them (their last "flops" made just over their budget). Trolls could very well be a surprise, but they had stronger movies they threw under the bus.

 

[MuppetSpot]

Yeah what's the deal with TROLLS, is this another marketreasearch like Shatktale or What?