The Worst CGI Kid Films In Recent Memory

[Drtooth]

I'll be blunt. I'm a monster for sharing this. A HUGE horrible person for sharing this.

That's how awful this is. And it isn't even the full special. I SAW the full special one gray, December afternoon a decade ago. I sat through the whole thing. It was unimaginable. I could go on about the abuse of stale tropes played dreadfully straight, the complete and utterly baffling inclusion of celeb voice actors that somehow got roped into doing it (including Mark Hammil and I seem to recall Jodi Benson), and the worse than the animation reel lets on animation. I'd say it has to be seen to be believed, but it's something I wouldn't wish on a mortal enemy. And it's just... it came without warning, it was never seen again. Someone knew it was bad, and it's sole dumped on syndication without advertisement airing must've been a contractual obligation. The wispy memories are starting to come back, and everything about it is awful, cloying, and pandering.

They couldn't even give it a good title. It sounds like a command. Terrible all the way around. And I'm sorry for showing the littlest bit of it available. Someone who's on TV Tropes please add this to the "So Bad it's Horrible" entry for animation.

 

[Slackbot]

I'm...speechless. I haven't seen animation like that since Final Fantasy 7.

 

[AlittleMayhem]

Never mind the bad animation. It was so pixelated that I couldn't even see it! Though that may be just the video quality but I don't think I missed much.

Also, wasn't that slow bus at the beginning just riveting?

 

[Drtooth]

The video was taken from the production website's demo reel back from 2002. Well before Youtube. So it's just the video. If anything, it softens the terrible look .

 

[Drtooth]

Here's more info... The distributor website

But if you don't want to bother, here's the bull the page is flinging (with footnotes)

Every now and then an animated program comes along that seems destined to become a classic."The Rapsittie Street Kids" franchise is such a project (1) . Featuring a one hour musical animated special entitled "Believe in Santa" it is the first of two (2) holiday one hour specials that features the rambunctious (3), cool (4) and cute (5) "The Rapsittie Street Kids." The music sound track is being released to radio (5) to coincide with the Christmas TV Syndication window.
The Rapsittie Street Kids are reminiscent of the beloved Peanuts characters (6) - set in a modern day suburban neighborhood and features the voices of; Paige O'Hara (Bell - Beauty & The Beast) and Jodi Benson (The Little Mermaid).

STORYLINE
Ricky thought that he had the perfect gift for his classmate, Nicole. After all, his teddy bear, slightly soiled, is his most precious possession. Nicole, however, is slightly spoiled well very spoiled.Her version of value is where was it bought? How much did it cost? Ricky's teddy bear scores very low on the Nicole scale of worth and she tosses it in the trash. Nicole later learns that the bear was the last thing Ricky's mother gave him before she died.(7)

1. Not bloody likely.
2. the only of two
3. obnoxious
4. stereotypical
5. cloying
6. HEY! Let's shove in the name of something people actually like. Maybe that'll confuse them
7. Emotionally manipulative pap. But OURS has no charming characters to get in the way.

 

[AlittleMayhem]

Sheesh!

 

[Drtooth]

Lost Media Wiki's like on fire trying to find out information on this special. Anyway, this image surfaced:

Even without the horrid CGI designs, these characters are plug fugly! And you gotta love how not at all mildly racist the description of "The Hip Black Kid" is. Love how they made him such a token stereotype.

 

[Drtooth]

I have no recollection of what it's called, but I saw a cheap piece of crap CGI DTV thing at Target (probably all over Red Box too). It just looked so incredibly ugly. Like almost "Last Flight" levels of ugly. And somehow, Sir Sean Connery and Alan Cumming were roped into providing voices for it.

Yep, Sean "I don't want to be in films ever again because of League of Extraordinary" Connery somehow has enough integrity to appear in a cheap kiddy flick that couldn't even afford a decent animation studio.

 

[Mr Snrub]

I have no recollection of what it's called, but I saw a cheap piece of crap CGI DTV thing at Target (probably all over Red Box too). It just looked so incredibly ugly. Like almost "Last Flight" levels of ugly. And somehow, Sir Sean Connery and Alan Cumming were roped into providing voices for it.

Sir Billi

 

[Slackbot]

Ooooh, that's pretty dire. 25 years ago that wouldn't have been bad CGI character design, but...yeah.

It's available on Amazon as "The Guardian of the Highlands." Check out the single review it got. 5 stars. The reviewer, Gavin, can't get enough of it. In fact, if you check out his other reviews you'll see that he can't stop plugging it, even while reviewing electronics equipment or, heaven help us, a horse's head mask.