Those stupid CGI talking-animal movies...

[wiley207]

I seem to be the only one that noticed that an unfortunate trend Hollywood's been doing since 2001 is doing CGI animated movies where the main characters are talking animals! These films often have celebrity/big name actors in the voice cast, crude "Ren and Stimpy"-style humor, pop songs throughout the soundtrack, and tend to follow a formulaic plot.

We've had too many of them since 2002. I've seen Hollywood release "Ice Age," "Madagascar," "Over the Hedge," "Valiant," "Chicken Little," "The Wild" (rip-off of "Madagascar"), "Hoodwinked," "Happy Feet," "Shark Tale," "Open Season," "Ant Bully," "Barnyard," "Flushed Away," "Surf's Up" (rip-off of "Happy Feet"), "Ratatouille," "Bee Movie," and several others I can't remember the titles of. Others will be coming out soon, like "Kung-Fu Panda" and lord knows what else? It's getting as bad as live-action remakes of classic cartoons (I hope "Muppet Babies" doesn't get that treatment!) And that's not the worst part. One of those annoying talking animal movies, "Ratatouille," WON THE OSCAR FOR BEST ANIMATED FILM! And "Happy Feet" won that award last year. Man, I hope Pixar never makes another talking animal movie after that "Dratatouille." If they do, I'LL GO CRAZY!

Sorry. I just needed to get that out

 

[Drtooth]

WoW... I don't even know where to begin to correct you on that.

Ratatoullie has NONE of that. In fact, an entire scene took place in a sewer and they didn't so much as make a poo joke in the sewers. It was pretty much the most artistic kid's movie of all time. I can't even believe they just rated it G. it had dialogue straight out of an adult art film about haute cusine. It just had a cartoony rat as the main focus of the film. And the casting was far over par over all the other films (especially Dreamwork's celebrity driven schlock). Patton Oswalt as the lead? That shows they care about the actors who play the roles as much as the characters. not just what celebs can they get. Not a single Pop culture reference in it, and no pop music in the sound track.

I could not recommend a film stronger than this one. If you pass by a supermarket $1 a night rental kiosk, you really should at least give it a rental. I think it's one of the strongest things Pixar ever done.

Ironically, Cars is more like what you just described.

 

[wiley207]

Ah.

Man, if Pixar DID make one of those talking-animal films like the ones I described, I'm gonna lose my mind!

I guess it was the fact that the trailers and ads for "Ratatouille" showed a lot of slapstick rat scenes just scared me away from seeing it, having seen so many ads for those kinds of movies. Besides, I liked the Simpsons movie better.

But I DO like "The Incredibles" and the Toy Story films. I often now call DreamWorks as "ScreamWorks" due to the bad things I've heard about it.

 

[frogboy4]

Brad Bird (who wrote and directed the Incredibles - probably the best CG film ever) remarked that few animated films have a story of purpose. I agree with that. Here's an honest rating of the films you listed. I don't think it's the CG that's particularly bad, it's the stories.

Ratatouille (a fine film that if seen would gain your respect)

Chicken Little (if you saw it you'd see a very sweet story there)
Over the Hedge (cute enough, had Gary Shandling and filled with Ben Folds music)
Open Season (guilty pleasure)
Flushed Away (an okay fun film)
Surf's Up (incongruent but superior film to Happy Feet - had penguins too, but did not rip it off)
Ice Age (cute departure from the usual, but the sequel was needless)
Madagascar (ugh-worthy)
Hoodwinked (bad animation but had funny moments and Andy Dick...if you like that sort of thing)
Shark Tale (snoozefest)
Bee Movie (needless but pretty)
The Wild (dull rip-off of Madagascar - agreed)
Barnyard (just, why did they make it?)
Valiant (terrible)
Ant Bully (dull and needless)
Happy Feet (the most dreadful animated film I've seen in years - needless and overrated)

 

[Redsonga]

I liked Happy Feet (but then I actually like dancing scenes and long 'boring' animal shows so don't mind me ). But I hated Chicken Little, Madagascar, The Wild, Barnyard, and Surf's Up . Surf's Up was just not the sort of tone of movie I really like . As for Ant Bully it was too much a rip off of Ants to me (a movie that I really liked), on the same subject I never really cared for A Bugs Life ether ... Valiant could have been a good movie but it suffered from the same sort of writing troubles as Chicken Little to me, it felt like it was trying to do too much. Barnyard is just awful, starting with the fact that bulls don't give milk ...

 

[MrsPepper]

Ratatouille is a fantastic movie. Maybe they marketed it differently in the states, but up here it didn't seem all slapsticky and whatever in previews. I saw it right when it came out and I don't remember being so impressed by an animated movie since Beauty and the Beast (and I was a wee one back then, so that tells you something). It's really intelligent, has a FANTASTIC story (which is what sets Pixar apart from all of these other cgi movie companies) that is deep, but charming and family friendly, and doesn't go for cheap jokes. And half of the movie, the rat Remy doesn't even talk, because of course the humans don't understand what they are saying, and you see the whole world of french cuisine. It's just fantastic.

Jamie, your summary was pretty good. I stopped going to alot of these movies, but I think you summed up the ones that I saw pretty well.

Edit: Forgot to add, the voices in Ratatouille are great. I get sort of annoyed when all these CGI movies market big name actors in animated roles... they are only doing this part because it was designed for them, in order to sell tickets. Pixar does use celebrities sometimes, but I think they are much choosier about it, making sure that the voice will have a very strong sense of character that will communicate very well onscreen, for example Ellen Degeneres as Dory, or Buzz and Woody in Toy Story (the exception to this rule might be Owen Wilson in Cars). Non-pixar movies use alot of celebs for name power and nothing else, like Julia Roberts, Elijah Wood, and Chris Rock (who I do think is funny on his own, but every animated/voice-over job he does he sounds EXACTLY THE SAME...)

 

[Redsonga]

I normally go to see them all when they are out because I don't want to base what I feel about them on what someone else says .
Even the ones with humans, Happily N'Ever After was awful

 

[SSLFan]

Brad Bird (who wrote and directed the Incredibles - probably the best CG film ever) remarked that few animated films have a story of purpose. I agree with that. Here's an honest rating of the films you listed. I don't think it's the CG that's particularly bad, it's the stories.

Ratatouille (a fine film that if seen would gain your respect)

Chicken Little (if you saw it you'd see a very sweet story there)
Over the Hedge (cute enough, had Gary Shandling and filled with Ben Folds music)
Open Season (guilty pleasure)
Flushed Away (an okay fun film)
Surf's Up (incongruent but superior film to Happy Feet - had penguins too, but did not rip it off)
Ice Age (cute departure from the usual, but the sequel was needless)
Madagascar (ugh-worthy)
Hoodwinked (bad animation but had funny moments and Andy Dick...if you like that sort of thing)
Shark Tale (snoozefest)
Bee Movie (needless but pretty)
The Wild (dull rip-off of Madagascar - agreed)
Barnyard (just, why did they make it?)
Valiant (terrible)
Ant Bully (dull and needless)
Happy Feet (the most dreadful animated film I've seen in years - needless and overrated)

Well, Shark Tale was pretty good. What was so bad about it?

 

[wiley207]

I guess they should've made a better trailer for "Ratatouille." Sort of like the beginning of the "Simpsons Movie" trailer (parodying CGI), where it starts with a narration and writing on the screen (with quick cuts or Remy) saying something like...

"Once upon a time... there was a set of Hollywood studios that made computer-animated movies... crude ones with talking animals and bad jokes... but coming in June 2007... things will change." Then it will show the GOOD stuff you guys are talking about and not the clips that made me think "Oh no, not another one of these!"

 

[frogboy4]

Well, Shark Tale was pretty good. What was so bad about it?

I didn't dislike Shark Tale all that much. I really liked Jack Black in it. But it was rather boring and crude in bits without being clever. I believe "snoozefest" sums it up for me. Not bad, just not all that good (in my opinion, of course)

I happen to have loved the style and the message of Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons (there were singing frogs in that one - who here doesn't like singing frogs? ). Both films had a message of hope, a sense of imperfect but loving families and sticking to your beliefs even when things get tough. Simple, I know, but I believe the sentiments were beautifully stated in these films and I like the specific style both films have.