FOR THE LOVE OF PETE, HASBRO! KNOCK IT OFF!

[CensoredAlso]

But like I said before, G.I. Joe and Transformers (as much as Bay screwed it up)... those properties have built in storylines. Heck, they needed storylines to sell those toys in the 80's, Transformers especially.

Though Hasbro did kind of mess that up back in the day killing off so many characters and traumatizing children just to get the new toy line on the shelves. The '80s franchises were good despite their toy company origins, rather than because of, heh.

 

[bandit]

Gee, reading this makes me think of the sketch in Family Guy where they talk about how Stephen King isn't even trying anymore. He pitches his next book idea, grabbing the first thing that he sees infront of him...which happens to be a desk lamp. Killer lamp!
"Raah! Raaah" He pretends to attack his publisher who, after an eye roll says, "When can you have it done?"
That's what I am getting from this lame-arsed truck movie. Adam Sandler huh? Count on someone having an annoying voice then.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Gee, reading this makes me think of the sketch in Family Guy where they talk about how Stephen King isn't even trying anymore. He pitches his next book idea, grabbing the first thing that he sees infront of him...which happens to be a desk lamp. Killer lamp!
"Raah! Raaah" He pretends to attack his publisher who, after an eye roll says, "When can you have it done?"

That's what tends to happen to good writers. You can only come up with so many classic stories before the well naturally runs dry. But publishers just keep squeezing them for more until none of the stories are worth reading.

 

[Hubert]

Gaah! I only saw the title before I clicked away. Really? Really? For some reason I have a 100% feeling this is going to be made...it seems to go that way anymore. The bad ideas get made everytime, and the good ones never do.

 

[Drtooth]

It'll be interesting to see if Seth McFarlane can pull off a long-form movie without being able to load up on cut-aways to paper over things. My money's on "no".

That's the problem with taking credit for a TV show. If you have a low quality bunch of writers, you always take the blame for it. If Seth and only Seth wrote it, it's clearly going to be more of his humor than a generic version of everyone in the staff's humor.
American Dad rarely uses cut-a-ways (like 3 or 4 in the show's history). That's because they have a different (and frankly, more talented) staff of writers. Like how The Simpsons is different from Futurama in tone and humor, despite Matt Groening "creating" both of them. South Park, by contrast is ALL Matt and Trey with the occasional extra writer.

I do like Seth's stuff in general, even though Family Guy is WAY past it's prime and too popular for it's own good. I'm giving that movie a shot.

Though Hasbro did kind of mess that up back in the day killing off so many characters and traumatizing children just to get the new toy line on the shelves. The '80s franchises were good despite their toy company origins, rather than because of, heh.

That's the funniest thing about those franchises, actually. Adding drama that was foreign to cartoons at the time just to put out new character toys. Yet, I'd say if they didn't, they'd fall into the Pokemon trap of having to introduce every new character mechanically and predictably in every single episode. That's why I was never a fan of that series.

 

[Muppet fan 123]

You...have...got...to..be..joking...
A Tonka movie? What is with turning toys into movies?

 

[charlietheowl]

That's the problem with taking credit for a TV show. If you have a low quality bunch of writers, you always take the blame for it. If Seth and only Seth wrote it, it's clearly going to be more of his humor than a generic version of everyone in the staff's humor.

I have never seen much American Dad, but I always thought that Seth McFarlane was the only guy really driving the ideas for Family Guy. I guess I never realized that multiple people were working on the writing staff. Still, I think that movie idea is going to be a tough one to pull off without just being crude for the sake of being crude.

 

[Drtooth]

I have never seen much American Dad, but I always thought that Seth McFarlane was the only guy really driving the ideas for Family Guy. I guess I never realized that multiple people were working on the writing staff. Still, I think that movie idea is going to be a tough one to pull off without just being crude for the sake of being crude.

That happens with everything that someone takes credit for. There are multiple people working on a show or idea, and it takes the whole crew to give us a finished product. Look at the Muppets, for example. The performers take the bare essence of an idea for a character, but come up with their personalities themselves. look at Oscar. That character went through a LOT of evolution over the years that made the character more complex than the basic idea of some nasty guy who pops up and tells people to go away.

Unless the creators regularly write for the show, they basically guide the writers one way or another if anything. Spielberg didn't create the characters of Animaniacs or Tiny Toons, but rather guided the production, picking out characters and segments he liked.

I wonder how much of FG Seth actually does. I know he does like 90% of the voice cast. I'm sure he does guide things in FG, but he has a whole staff of writers pitching their ideas too. He's pretty disconnected from The Cleveland Show to the point where they had to recast the 2 characters on the show he actually does the voice of when he was working on Ted. American Dad he only really does voices for. Actually, I heard he wanted to end FG after the 10th season, and he kinda had a fight with Fox about the Return of the Jedi episode. Fox wanted him to do it, he really didn't want to, so he just dumped it on the writers.

Still, I have to admit, I liked his stuff a wee bit better when he was doing cartoons for a younger audience, like Johnny Bravo.

 

[charlietheowl]

That happens with everything that someone takes credit for. There are multiple people working on a show or idea, and it takes the whole crew to give us a finished product.

I made my assumption because he is so visible as the creator/spokesperson of the show that I guess it was easy for me to not realize there were others. As for Family Guy and character development, they seem to be backing away from that in recent years, which I think may be because McFarlane wants to do other things.

 

[Drtooth]

I made my assumption because he is so visible as the creator/spokesperson of the show that I guess it was easy for me to not realize there were others. As for Family Guy and character development, they seem to be backing away from that in recent years, which I think may be because McFarlane wants to do other things.

It's an easy assumption to make. But unless someone's the soul writer, things tend to go off on different directions or at least blend with other writing styles. Most of everything is a collaborative effort.

No one wants one thing to define their life's work. I really want to see Seth pull away from FG and do something else, but take a long break first. It seems that his baby is the new Flintstones series which is delayed due to how busy he is between 3 shows (on various levels of connection) and that film. But I don't think Fox wants him to do that quite yet. It's a big money maker for them. There's word that the whole drama between Fox and Futurama was a conspiracy theory for Matt to keep focusing on The Simpsons, even though that's more the product of their various writers as well. I will say I'm confused that AD keeps getting renewed, since Fox seems to want to throw that under a bus for that very reason. I mean, the show's been on for years now, and there hasn't been a single piece of merchandise since the show's first year. Of course, if it wasn't for AD, Seth wouldn't have agreed to do more FG.

But that's enough about that subject. Still... Tonka freaking Truck movies...