Weekly Box Office and Film Discussion Thread

[jvcarroll]

Ha! I was about to post about Frankenweenie. I was which stop-motion project would have the best opening weekend, Frankenweenie or ParaNorman. I plan to see Burton's new film soon, but I'm glad to see black sheep ParaNorman hold his own.

I did see Hotel Transylvania and here are my thoughts on it. You know the irritation when someone talks through an entire film and won't shut up? Well that was Adam Sandler and his dreadful accent in this movie. Genndy Tartakovsky's characters are so bright and colorful and hey, CeeLo is the Mummy. That's funny! Sandler, give someone else a turn and shut the heck up! He leaves absolutely no breathing room for anything else. He doesn't let 5 seconds go by without carpeting it with chatter and it's not all jokes, people. He narrates every single action and thought. You think he'd never made a film before. Even when he pulls out the jokes, only one-in-ten actually land. That said, watch the film with the sound off and you're in for quite a treat. It's beautiful! I'm just shocked by its box office. It's such a poorly written film and not much happens.

 

[Drtooth]

I felt it was good for what it was, and considering it was Sony, it was alright. I just wish the Wolfman had more lines. Sandler didn't bug me in this film. Probably the best thing he did since his appearance on Sesame Street... but that really doesn't say much.

It was decent, and I'm too big a fan of Monster Mash to pass it up, but I really think Genndy should make a call to some of the writers of his classic cartoon series next film. At least someone who isn't abusive with the toilet humor.

Still, I hope this movie does well enough so CN can suck it and try to get him back to finish Sym-Biotic Titan.

 

[jvcarroll]

I felt it was good for what it was, and considering it was Sony, it was alright. I just wish the Wolfman had more lines. Sandler didn't bug me in this film. Probably the best thing he did since his appearance on Sesame Street... but that really doesn't say much.

It was decent, and I'm too big a fan of Monster Mash to pass it up, but I really think Genndy should make a call to some of the writers of his classic cartoon series next film. At least someone who isn't abusive with the toilet humor.

Still, I hope this movie does well enough so CN can suck it and try to get him back to finish Sym-Biotic Titan.

The characters were great, but Sandler wouldn't shut up! I was amazed. He spoke through nearly every frame of the picture. It's like that friend you go out with after work, ask him about his day and it's midnight before you know it and he hasn't stopped talking. THAT'S how bad I felt it was. He didn't let any scene settle. He didn't let the gorgeous animation speak for itself. He could have done this whole bit on the radio.

I liked the visuals and some of Sandler's shtick was funny, but boy did he wear out his welcome with me. It will be years before I want to hear his voice again!

 

[Drtooth]

At least he wasn't in drag and playing his own sister. It's hard to find the annoying point of someone who's based his career on being annoying. I did like the "I don't say 'bleh'" gags, though.

I really think Steve Buschemi's Wolfman disappeared for most of the film. That's the real shame. His suicidal rabbit in Igor stole the show, and it's kinda disappointing the wolf family angle was never fully explored until it was a plot point.

Still, probably Sony's master work. I hope Genndy has more creative control over the next project.

 

[jvcarroll]

At least he wasn't in drag and playing his own sister. It's hard to find the annoying point of someone who's based his career on being annoying. I did like the "I don't say 'bleh'" gags, though.

I really think Steve Buschemi's Wolfman disappeared for most of the film. That's the real shame. His suicidal rabbit in Igor stole the show, and it's kinda disappointing the wolf family angle was never fully explored until it was a plot point.

Still, probably Sony's master work. I hope Genndy has more creative control over the next project.

I get what you're saying. Everyone seemed to take a backseat to Sandler and that was a shame.

I'll agree Hotel Transylvania is the feather in Sony's cap when compared to Open Season, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The Smurfs and Arthur Christmas.

This could have been a much better film had they actually utilized the hotel motif and woven the stories of 3 other guests/room numbers into the mix and used Dracula's dilemma as the movie arc.

That rap song at the end actually made me be embarrassed to be in the theater. It was dreadful.

Genndy Tartakovsky's characters deserved better and the audience did too.

 

[CaseytheMuppet]

I honestly loved the film. Ok, I didn't like the rap... but it was still cool to hear Sandler singing again.

 

[Hayley B]

That is a surprise about Frankenweenie (seeing the results on Fandango too). Still I think it's cute looking . Though I don't think there will be a total awesome like Nightmare Before Christmas. But at the same level as Corpse Bride was. I think Corpse Bride did better then that too?

 

[KremlingWhatnot]

Behold The Next Film Genndy's Working On!!, Which Is In This Link
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/tag/genndy-tartakovsky

 

[Drtooth]

I'll agree Hotel Transylvania is the feather in Sony's cap when compared to Open Season, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The Smurfs and Arthur Christmas.

You forgot the dreadful surfing penguin movie. And Arthur Christmas was Aardman, and released by Sony. We all know well that I have a rampant dislike of this studio, and meh to lame CGI movies are all they really can do. I'm not a huge fan of third party CGI animation studios, and I drilled that into everyone's heads about now. There are some surprises, like Despicable Me and Igor. But over all, it's just a "we wanna be Dreamworks and make Dreamworks money." Some stuff looks DTV quality at best...

But Sony actually made a movie I genuinely liked, given the major flaws. Seems like this almost could have been a cartoon series over a movie. That way, we'd get all the unexplored potential. Too many things just vaporized in the film. I wish Genndy rewrote a lot of the script to really refine it. And yeah, Cee-Lo, Buschemi, and Lovitz stole the show as best they could.

Behold The Next Film Genndy's Working On!!, Which Is In This Link
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/tag/genndy-tartakovsky

I heard about that. Doesn't give me too much confidence that Genndy said (at one point, I forget the interview) that he's basically working to make sure Sony doesn't hip the film up. I really hope project after this he gives some of his other CN day staff a call to get a great script out there. it would be awesome if they got Roger Langridge to write the script (he's borderline forgery in the IDW Popeye comics), but we know that's not in the cards. But I just can't see this Popeye being as good as the live action one. That film doesn't deserve half the crap it gets. It does more justice to what Popeye is really about than even the cartoons.

 

[KremlingWhatnot]

You forgot the dreadful surfing penguin movie. And Arthur Christmas was Aardman, and released by Sony. We all know well that I have a rampant dislike of this studio, and meh to lame CGI movies are all they really can do. I'm not a huge fan of third party CGI animation studios, and I drilled that into everyone's heads about now. There are some surprises, like Despicable Me and Igor. But over all, it's just a "we wanna be Dreamworks and make Dreamworks money." Some stuff looks DTV quality at best...

But Sony actually made a movie I genuinely liked, given the major flaws. Seems like this almost could have been a cartoon series over a movie. That way, we'd get all the unexplored potential. Too many things just vaporized in the film. I wish Genndy rewrote a lot of the script to really refine it. And yeah, Cee-Lo, Buschemi, and Lovitz stole the show as best they could.



I heard about that. Doesn't give me too much confidence that Genndy said (at one point, I forget the interview) that he's basically working to make sure Sony doesn't hip the film up. I really hope project after this he gives some of his other CN day staff a call to get a great script out there. it would be awesome if they got Roger Langridge to write the script (he's borderline forgery in the IDW Popeye comics), but we know that's not in the cards. But I just can't see this Popeye being as good as the live action one. That film doesn't deserve half the crap it gets. It does more justice to what Popeye is really about than even the cartoons.

I'm Just Hoping It's NOT Another "Oh We Have To Search For Pappy" Kind Of Plot!!
Cause That Plot Has Been Overused That We Don't Need To See It Again, Put It With Another Plot!! Something Else This Time!!