Gee Whiz Isn’t Enough – Story and Character Make the Movie

July 24, 2006 · Filed Under Animation Rants · Comments Off on Gee Whiz Isn’t Enough – Story and Character Make the Movie 

Dimples isn’t the only person ranting about the state of animation. Others are noticing that most of the CG 3D animated movies released this year are boring. From Roger Moore and the Orlando Sentinel:

So Cars is still chugging along, lifelessly sucking in the suckers who need a good snooze while their kids nap between jokes. It’s no Nemo, though. Or Monsters, Inc. Or Incredibles.

Ice Age 2 does boffo business, for a movie with nothing to recommend it.

Over the Hedge is funny, and does swell, but no better than Madagascar.

And Monster House opens at number 2 at the box office.

Ant Bully opens Friday.

And Barnyard a few days after that. And then there’s Open Season, Happy Feet and Flushed Away.

Before the end of the year.

So many computer animators. So little…magic. Delight. Excitement.

CGI cartoons are everywhere. They’re ranging from OK to bad, from Over the Hedge to Monster House to Cars to Ant Bully to Ice Age to Hoodwinked, from best to worst. Thus far this year.

Any single Looney Tune’s short cartoon has more magic than all of this year’s CGI cartoons combined. There’s no style. There’s no magic. There’s no story. There are no memorable characters. Is there a single Bugs Bunny from all of the CG animation created so far? No. There is no Bugs Bunny.

Roger Moore continues:

CGI cartoons are everywhere. They’re ranging from OK to bad, from Over the Hedge to Monster House to Cars to Ant Bully to Ice Age to Hoodwinked, from best to worst. Thus far this year.

That means the novelty has at long last worn off. They’re not automatic hits.

We’re looking at the downhill side, the downward slide of CGI.

There’s a rush to cash-in on CG animation. In that rush, studios have dumped alot of talented people. They’ve forgotten story telling and character in their rush to the box office ATM. Like the gold rushers, they may find themselves with little more than a shovel of dirt. Finally, from Roger Moore in the Orlando Sentinel:

I am guessing that the day will come when Disney second-guesses its Pixar purchase and wishes it had the help on hand to make another Little Mermaid.

[tags]animation, CG animation, CGI animation, Disney, Pixar[/tags]

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Why Vintage Animation and Not the New 3D World?

May 23, 2006 · Filed Under Animation Rants · Comments Off on Why Vintage Animation and Not the New 3D World? 

The guys at Darling Dimples are asked this question continuously. With Maya you can do this and with Maya you can do that. Take the Dimple challenge. Watch 30 minutes of your favorite 3D animated cartoon and then watch 30 minutes of good traditional 2D animation or even the splendid claymation of Wallace and Gromit. How did you feel after watching these flavors of animation? The guys at Darling Dimples found the perfect quote to describe how they feel in an article about Barry Purves who is THE master of puppet animation: “…Purves’s puppets have a breadth and depth that sets them apart from most work in this field and far indeed from the flashy but frigid creations of most computer animation.” The key descriptive phrase is “flashy but frigid creations”. The dimpled boys here believe this is true of 99% of 3D animated cartoons. They have the feel of a dead plastic toy. You can only marvel at the technology for so long before you yearn for good acting and a good story.

From the Puppet Animation of Barry Purves

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