West Nile, Swine Flu, Meningitis, and Sequelitis

[Drtooth]

Is anybody even liking Wreck-it Ralph yet? I mean so far, I've only heard ONE positive review, maybe two, among mostly negativity.

It was the best Disney CGI studio original I've seen. And, quite honestly, this is the first time a Disney original outshined a Pixar film. I like Brave and all, but it didn't quite deliver what it could have.

It was pretty much my favorite animated movie of the year. I will say a lot of the other CGI films were fairly good, not great, but not terrible either. But Ralph was the best one this year hands down. And it almost was Madagascar 3 for me if it wasn't for that film.

Guardians looks great, though I don't think I'll enjoy it as much as I did Ralph.

 

[Oscarfan]

I'm pretty sure many people were disappointed because they thought it would be more like Roger Rabbit and have tons of cameos in every scene, when most of the cameos were shown in the trailers.

 

[Drtooth]

I'm pretty sure many people were disappointed because they thought it would be more like Roger Rabbit and have tons of cameos in every scene, when most of the cameos were shown in the trailers.

I think people expected Ralph to jump from game to game to game and becoming the hero of one of them. The previews made it seem that Hero's Duty was supposed to be the end of the film, at least it was like that to me. But I think they had a superior plotline of him jumping one game, and crashlanding in another, letting the events of his first bad choice almost destroy the world of another game. Not to mention all the great rules about unplugging and going turbo, and of course referencing unfinished code characters almost as if they read The Cutting Room Floor when writing the script. That gave a real sense of urgency the film's trailers didn't bother showing. Personally, I'm glad the cameos were just that. Sonic's PSA cameo and the use of Q*bert were strategic and integral to the plot. Everything else (especially Capcom wanting them to splash Street Fighter all over the film) was window dressing and shout outs. The only disappointment I have with the movie is all the characters that weren't in the film. But that was outweighed by the film itself and the major reference to Tapper. Heck, that's where the movie really starts.

 

[D'Snowth]

Come to think of it, this almost seems like Shrek's fault... prior to Shrek, how many movies can you think of that actually tried to surpass more than three installments (except for Land Before Time)? Granted, I know originally DreamWorks was shooting for like five or six Shrek movies, but I think they did good by ending it when they did, because even the fourth one seemed a little on the tired side. Three was good mainly for a laugh, and the second one is the best in the series, in my opinion.

Still, it seems like since Shrek, many different studios have tried to do the same... who else besides myself and John got the vibe that Blue Sky wants Ice Age to be their Shrek (and Ice Age didn't even need a sequel to begin with, it was fine as a stand-alone feature)? And look at The Chipmunks, though again, with the annoucement of the new animated series coming in 2013, it doesn't seem like there has been any further development on this supposed fourth movie where they go into outer space. And hasn't one of those off-brand CGI movies gotten up to at least three by this point (I can't remember if it was Open Season, or Hookwinked, or what, but it was one of those)?

Again, how common was this many number of sequels for one animated movie series, prior to Shrek?

 

[Drtooth]

Hoodwinked Too was super duper screwed by the distribution company. It should have been much better than it turned out. It had a better script going in than the finished project gave us. The original writer was none too happy about how it turned out. Hopefully there won't be a third. At least without Cory's involvement.

Ice Age didn't need a single sequel, yet every sequel has a more coherent story than the last They had their moments, but the only reason I saw the 4th one was the Pirates and the Maggie Simpson short before the film. I got a sense of "I really don't care" when it came to Manny's daughter and the rodent that was her friend, and that whole B story of the film. It's like Ice Age is the only trick that pony has, and every movie that wasn't Ice Age was actually pretty good so far (though I didn't see Rio).

 

[robodog]

Robots was done by the same folks that did Ice Age wasn't it? I kind of enjoyed that one.

 

[Drtooth]

It sure was. And it was my favorite of their movies to date. If anything deserves a sequel, it's that one. I even have all the cereal promo toys.

 

[D'Snowth]

It was, though personally, I didn't quite care for that one myself... IMHO, they seem kind of like DreamWorks was there for a while with Shrek, it seemed like most of Blue Sky's non-Ice Age work was kind of meh, at best. I haven't seen their version of Lorax, but I still stand by my theory that the ONLY reason Horton was as success as it was was all because of one emo character (Jojo).

But likewise, it really hasn't been until recently that any of DreamWorks' non-Shrek movies were really any good... I loathed SharkTale, haven't cared for either of the Kung-fu Panda or Madagascar movies, but I did like Bee Movie, and How to Train Your Dragon has so far been one of their better movies.

Of course, animation side, the live action division of DreamWorks has had some really good movies over the decades, Mousehunt being one of them.

 

[robodog]

It sure was. And it was my favorite of their movies to date. If anything deserves a sequel, it's that one. I even have all the cereal promo toys.

I've mentioned elsewhere on the forums that I have a bit of a blind spot for dog movies. I even enjoy bad ones like that Underdog mess. But I'm even worse for films with robots. There are a few dog movies I cannot sit through ( Hotel For Dogs, Firehouse dog ) but I have yet to encounter a film involving robots that I didn't like. That's why I consider myself a fan of the Transformers films despite knowing what a mess they are.

It was, though personally, I didn't quite care for that one myself... IMHO, they seem kind of like DreamWorks was there for a while with Shrek, it seemed like most of Blue Sky's non-Ice Age work was kind of meh, at best. I haven't seen their version of Lorax, but I still stand by my theory that the ONLY reason Horton was as success as it was was all because of one emo character (Jojo).

But likewise, it really hasn't been until recently that any of DreamWorks' non-Shrek movies were really any good... I loathed SharkTale, haven't cared for either of the Kung-fu Panda or Madagascar movies, but I did like Bee Movie, and How to Train Your Dragon has so far been one of their better movies.

Of course, animation side, the live action division of DreamWorks has had some really good movies over the decades, Mousehunt being one of them.

Shark Tale was horrible. I recently tried to rewatch it when they ran it on Cartoon Network. I couldn't sit through the whole thing. The commercials were more entertaining.

 

[Hubert]

(Is Mousehunt that movie with Nathan Lane in it?)