Should we get more hand drawn movies in our time?.

[mr3urious]

What we need is a strong enough script and concept to work as any animated movie first. Home video/streaming and the oversaturation of terrible tenth party studios is hurting CGI. And Stop motion films just aren't getting the love they should be.

I do give credit to Laika for sticking to its guns and continuing to make stop-motion films despite their underperformance. Plus, I do like how we have been seeing a lot more of them recently, and not just from them or Aardman.

As for Don Bluth, I really would love to see him come back to his glory days of American Tail and Land Before Time One. He had a steady slide in the 90's and very early 00's, mainly because of the emulation of Disney they forced on him in that period. Thumbellina sucked. And things got worse until when he had Titan AE, which was too much of a money loser to keep things up.

Titan A.E. was a sad tale. It tried not to ape Disney in just about every way, yet flopped because it got lost in the shuffle. Same goes for The Iron Giant, though it was vindicated in an extensive home video marketing push.

There's a Kickstarter to get Don to make the Dragon's Lair movie. Hopefully that pans out.

The Dragon's Lair movie project was definitely a success, and managed to hit all its stretch goals and then some. It started on KS, but switched over to Indiegogo for some reason.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/dragon-s-lair-returns#/

 

[MuppetSpot]

Well I heard Ice Age was originally was 2D film direct by Bluth but he rejected it.

 

[Drtooth]

I do give credit to Laika for sticking to its guns and continuing to make stop-motion films despite their underperformance. Plus, I do like how we have been seeing a lot more of them recently, and not just from them or Aardman.

Laika is clearly doing it for the art. Major props to them for that. The films do find an audience on home video and they're all instant cult films. While BoxTrolls didn't set the world on fire, the Funko Pops were impossible to find, and no doubt going for a fortune on the internet. I blame underproduction and bad distribution for that. Meanwhile, the 16 Candles ones just sit on the shelves waiting to be marked down. But that's another topic for another day. Laika is going to keep making films just for the sake of making them, and hopefully they get the audience they deserve one day.

Though, I'm kinda bummed Pirates Adventures with Scientists didn't take, as far as Aardman is concerned. Shaun the Sheep I kinda see. Wallace and Grommit haven't really been seen since maybe the Telltale Game, certainly not much in the states after Loaf and Death. The connection isn't there, but moreso Shaun the Sheep is a kid's show in Britain. Dunno if it even aired here, but it did have a bunch of DVD release. It also has the stigma of being a preschool show somehow (I don't see it), and preschool films never succeed. Even with the strongest brand there is in children's entertainment which is painfully obvious considering the site we're on.

Titan A.E. was a sad tale. It tried not to ape Disney in just about every way, yet flopped because it got lost in the shuffle. Same goes for The Iron Giant, though it was vindicated in an extensive home video marketing push.

It's like what I say about Disney. Disney gets flack for being the princess movie factory, but then everyone complains about their non-princess films for not being princess films. The same goes for adult animated movies. Now, Titan AE was clearly for a group that didn't quite exist yet, ditto Iron Giant. These films only got their due years later when animation buffs started to become a thing once they hit their 20's. There's a lot to like and respect about those films, it just took forever to see it. Not helping, also, the fact that by now the Disney films (even with traumatic elements) were getting younger kids to drag their parents to. Iron Giant didn't have any wacky sidekicks or fun songs to merchandise and sell sing-a-long videos of.

Yet, when these same companies made kiddy films they were... mixed, but mostly not good. I mean, Cats Don't Dance may not be the greatest film out there, but it's a pleasant surprise. Quest for Camelot...well... it doesn't know if it wants to be Disney or wants to give Disney the finger, and it's both too much and nothing going on at once. The 2 headed Dragon was, admittedly, amusing. The Urkle voiced Axe Chicken was alright. The villain was too much of a ham to take seriously (or even funny) and whatever was left was so half [butt]ed I can't even say it's a cliche storm so much as a slog that happens to be lazy enough to include cliches. And frankly off brand (read: not Disney) animated features were being pooped out. Not to mention Disney made it's infamous cheapquels with its cheaper TV animation units, thus making themselves their own competition as well.

And I see the same thing happening with CGI films. Certainly Norm of the North deserves its 6th place opening, as did Legends of Oz and...well... from what I hear Strange Magic, but the music is good and the visuals at least look professional and high budget. Not to mention the endless parade of bad foreign CGI films that bloat up RedBox and Netflix.