The Worst CGI Kid Films In Recent Memory

[Luke kun]

I can try and respect a home grown, grassroots animation studio just trying to make a name for itself somewhere. I just can't respect this. One of the most famous examples of a bunch of guys coming together to make a great piece of indie animation is of course, this beauty.

Made just for a convention with a handful of people. That should make every aspiring animator feel small as heck. Like I said in another thread about the difference between the Roger Corman Fantastic Four movie and the current one, at least the RC version has nothing but love coming out of it. To even just draw every character, Western and Japanese possible in the span of a few seconds (something not even Disney and all their animators could do with that Roger Rabbit short, the Roller Coaster one) is just... wow. And those guys went on to become an animation studio. Gainax, I believe. Now, here's the comparison of whyu I bring this up.

Now we look at this studio. By all means, it's a small studio of a few people, probably just working off not that state of the art computers. And it looks like someone even tried (and failed) to make their own animation software (or at least copyrighted a flismy name for it). The "Puppet-o-Vision" or whatever. And it's just as home made looking as anything. But with time and effort, they probably could have made something of at least just under Beast Wars/Reboot quality (after several years of advancement). Instead we have some ugly cross between the aforementioned Dire Straights video and the Australian Nintendo "You cannot beat us" ad, sans whimsy. And I could easily overlook the terrible animation (Rocky and Bullwinkle fan and all) it the writing wasn't so terrible. I mean, oh! Look how progressive the portrayals are. The black kid loves to talk in Hip Hop. That's not so much as racist as much as what an out of touch white guy would come up with as "hip." It's the equivalent of the characters from Rocket Power, actually. And the guy was deluded to think this would be a hit series.

All and all, I'm sure the obvious comparison here, especially the fact that random talented celebrities were sadly roped into this, is with Oogieloves. But I say the delusions of grandeur here are more reminiscent of The Cheetah Men. Certainly has the same amount of technical knowhow behind it.

Hey, I made the comparison to the Aussie Nintendo ad. Wait 'till the Nostalgia Critic sees this on his next Christmas Month!

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Has anyone mentioned "THE DOLPHIN: STORY OF A DREAMER" yet ?
That movie was pretty bad. Almost nothing happened the entire movie. All I remember is some really weird character who I think was the main character's sister, farting a lot and then smelling it.

 

[D'Snowth]

I had the same experience when we saw A TROLL IN CENTRAL PARK when I was a kid: after seeing Nostalgia Critic's review of it, there's so much from the movie that I don't remember, probably because it was so terrible.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

I had the same experience when we saw A TROLL IN CENTRAL PARK when I was a kid: after seeing Nostalgia Critic's review of it, there's so much from the movie that I don't remember, probably because it was so terrible.

Oh completely forgot about that movie, I never actually seen it but I do remember that Dom DeLuise was the lead. I vaguely remember a chubby red headed troll who looked like a troll doll.

 

[D'Snowth]

Dom DeLuise was in a lot of Don Bluth movies, but that was really the only time he voiced the lead character - most of the time, he was the hero's sidekick (much like how Charles Nelson Reilly was often the villain's henchman or lackey).

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

But yeah,a lot of Don Bluth's movies seem to be pretty hit or miss. My favorites are An American Tale and Land Before Time .

 

[D'Snowth]

I say ROCK-A-DOODLE gets more hate than it deserves: I loved it as a kid, I thought it was a rather imaginative movie. Trippy, yes, but imaginative.

AN AMERICAN TAIL is a good one, yes, as is ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN.

 

[Drtooth]

I had the same experience when we saw A TROLL IN CENTRAL PARK when I was a kid: after seeing Nostalgia Critic's review of it, there's so much from the movie that I don't remember, probably because it was so terrible.

We must never forget there were horrible traditionally animated movies as well. And it's a shame that Don Bluth, a freaking artist in his own right, wound up producing them. I hated Thumbellina, and the only saving grace was seeing Yakko, Wakko, and Dot on the big screen. And only time too, since their movie went DTV and they were Batman Embargoed out of the Looney Tunes Back in Action movie.

I have seen Rock-a-doodle, and I won't say it's terrible, just not remarkable. The animation in even the worst of these movies is still good, but some of them really feel like a wasted effort. It's clear the studios forced him to do these films due to the success Disney was having at the time.

But the absolute worst animated movie I've ever sat through has to have been the very obscure MGM's "Adventures of Tom Sawyer." Now, I have to say, if there were two animated movies that were great by throwing the actual books' stories out the window, it was Disney's The Jungle Book and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. In the case of Tom Sawyer, well... let's just say they could have called the movie anything and it would be exactly the same. That's not why the film is so bad, actually, but you take a book that's supposed to be satire and turn it into a safe, vapid kid's movie that's a huge "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!?!?" moment all its own. But what the movie replaces the actual storyline with is what the real crime is.

Generic crap.

Just generic, Disney wannabe and failing at it crap to the point where the movie's villain somehow turns into a big huge version of himself, ala Ursula, Jafar, Maleficent, and while not in size, than in pure murderous insanity Gaston. Only clumsy and more idiotic. Glad I only saw it that one time.

 

[cuppajoe95]

But the absolute worst animated movie I've ever sat through has to have been the very obscure MGM's "Adventures of Tom Sawyer." Now, I have to say, if there were two animated movies that were great by throwing the actual books' stories out the window, it was Disney's The Jungle Book and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. In the case of Tom Sawyer, well... let's just say they could have called the movie anything and it would be exactly the same. That's not why the film is so bad, actually, but you take a book that's supposed to be satire and turn it into a safe, vapid kid's movie that's a huge "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!?!?" moment all its own. But what the movie replaces the actual storyline with is what the real crime is.

Generic crap.

Just generic, Disney wannabe and failing at it crap to the point where the movie's villain somehow turns into a big huge version of himself, ala Ursula, Jafar, Maleficent, and while not in size, than in pure murderous insanity Gaston. Only clumsy and more idiotic. Glad I only saw it that one time.

Oh, I think I saw that on TV once... about 11 years ago. And I only barely remember that I saw it. I'm not even desperate to rewatch it nor was I even months after that.

Same went for (sorry to bring this up again) Balto III: Wings of Change. I saw it the day it premiered on YTV (right before it was due to be released on video early in February, mind you)... and I never even missed it that much. For reference, I saw the original a weekend or two before that on the same channel... and I've gone out of my way to rewatch it. Never saw Wolf Quest, but it's probably all for the better.

Is it just me or did most DTV animated movies (especially cheapquels) have animation that somehow looked worse than Saturday morning cartoons of the time? I find Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie is an especially bad example of this, I almost can't stand to even look at that film.

 

[D'Snowth]

Wait a minute . . . there was a third Balto movie? I honestly had no idea.