Animated film directors SLAM recent animated box office hits.
Animated film directors SLAM recent animated box office hits.
beautywickedlover
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/28/07
#1Animated film directors SLAM recent animated box office hits.
Posted: 7/23/13 at 11:46am
Directors of well-received animated films have slammed the performances of recent animated blockbusters, especially, 'Despicable Me 2'.
“It’s too homogenous. It’s way too much the same,” said Henry Selick, who directed stop-motion pics “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Coraline.” “The films aren’t really that different one from the other. ‘Despicable Me’ could have been made Pixar, by DreamWorks. It’s not a great time for feature animation if you want to do something even moderately outside the formula.”
While all the directors who spoke to Variety agreed the current popularity of animation is good news for the industry, Selick was not alone in lamenting the sameness of today’s animated features. Kirk Wise, best known for directing (with Gary Trousdale) “Beauty and the Beast,” also lamented lack of individuality in today’s toons. “I would love to see something come along that was just a little quirky, a little more special, that didn’t feel like the same movie that was released three weeks ago.” And Chris Sanders, helmer of DreamWorks Animation’s “The Croods,” said while big grosses for animation are great news, he’s worried that today’s animated studio fare is “monumental.”
“That’s one of the things that’s very much on my mind,” he said, “I think we need to create a variety of types of animated films, some that are not going to cost as much as others. Not every story is giant.”
Sanders said he wishes animation could be done more quickly, and therefore for less. He pointed to “Lilo & Stitch,” pictured, which he and Dean DeBlois wrote and directed before moving on to pricier fare like “How to Train Your Dragon.”
“It’s a matter of the studio committing to the idea (of a lower budget),” Sanders said. “We pitched (‘Lilo & Stitch’) with the idea that we would be paying for our story freedom with reduced schedule and a reduced budget.”
Henry Selick Slams ‘Despicable Me 2,’ Animation Biz
Updated On: 7/23/13 at 11:46 AM
Borstalboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
#2Animated film directors SLAM recent animated box office hits.
Posted: 7/23/13 at 11:59amAgreed.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
#2Animated film directors SLAM recent animated box office hits.
Posted: 7/23/13 at 12:17pm
I don't think the director of The Croods has any business lamenting the monotony of current animation.
"Broadway...I'll lick you yet!"
#3Animated film directors SLAM recent animated box office hits.
Posted: 7/23/13 at 12:35pm
When I watched about 30 minutes of Corpse Bride, it felt like I was watching deleted scenes from The Nightmare Before Christmas.
I don't think the director of both should be pointing today's movies and say "They're too similar to one another."
Really? Check your own work, too, then.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#4Animated film directors SLAM recent animated box office hits.
Posted: 7/23/13 at 12:50pm
So I guess Paranorman never happened.
Let's take a peek at the animated films these guys have directed...
Kirk Wise:
Beauty and the Beast
Hunchback of Notre Dame
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Henry Selick:
Nightmare Before Christmas
James and the Giant Peach
Coraline
Chris Sanders:
Lilo & Stitch
How to Train Your Dragon
The Croods
Uh huh.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
#5Animated film directors SLAM recent animated box office hits.
Posted: 7/23/13 at 2:36pm
Selick didn't direct Corpse Bride--he wasn't involved at all (to the best of my knowledge.) I think Bride would have been far better if he had done it, frankly (but the general public thinks Burton directed Nightmare, as well.)
While Selick has had films I've not loved (I'm on the fence with James and the Giant Peach and Monkeybone is a mess) I think between Nightmare, the beautiful CGI short Moongirl, the stop-motion bits of The Life Aquatic and Coraline, I'm more than fine with hearing Selick's thoughts on the current state of American animation--I think he's proven himself (at least to me) as someone willing to try interesting and slightly off-centre projects.
As for Chris Sanders--I agree with his point, and Lilo and Stitch was cute, but... yeah...
Paranorman underperformed, which I guess is the rationale for not mentioning it. And it's true that in the 90s Disney got stuck in a formula--one that others like Don Bluth tried to copy (with mixed results,) and then had trouble trying to find a new formula with films like Treasure Planet and Atlantis, but I still agree with the comment.
The current state of CGI films that seem to be coming out more and more frequently hold zero interest for me--even increasingly Pixar's films, which is disappointing and--while some are obviously better than others, they do all seem increasingly samey--if not so much in terms of setting but rather in terms of style, humour, etc.
#6Animated film directors SLAM recent animated box office hits.
Posted: 7/23/13 at 2:52pm
I agree as well.
I think the major problem with today's animated films is that they're always trying to accommodate all the humor that they possibly can into a single movie. They're basically the family friendly equivalents to Scary Movie, Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans, Disaster Movie, etc... Cheap, tasteless comedies.
I wish we we could go back to the timeless disney classics.
Liza's Headband
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/28/13
#7Animated film directors SLAM recent animated box office hits.
Posted: 7/23/13 at 3:00pm
"I wish we we could go back to the timeless disney classics."
Which "classics" are you talking about?
#8Animated film directors SLAM recent animated box office hits.
Posted: 7/23/13 at 3:06pmBrother Bear & Home On The Range, obviously.
Liza's Headband
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/28/13
#9Animated film directors SLAM recent animated box office hits.
Posted: 7/23/13 at 3:14pmLOL. Brother Bear. What a dreadful flick.
#10Animated film directors SLAM recent animated box office hits.
Posted: 7/23/13 at 3:15pmStop! It's a classic to Tweens like Jazz.
#11Animated film directors SLAM recent animated box office hits.
Posted: 7/23/13 at 3:21pm
"Which "classics" are you talking about?"
Well, I'm partial to the renaissance, but of course I also love Snow White, Peter Pan, Cinderella, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Sleeping Beauty...
ETA: I hated Brother Bear.
Updated On: 7/23/13 at 03:21 PM
#12Animated film directors SLAM recent animated box office hits.
Posted: 7/23/13 at 3:23pmOr Atlantis and The Emperor's New Groove.
#13Animated film directors SLAM recent animated box office hits.
Posted: 7/23/13 at 3:29pmDon't knock Emperor's New Groove! I had no interest in it at all, but loved it when I finally watched it. A surprising little gem.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
#14Animated film directors SLAM recent animated box office hits.
Posted: 7/23/13 at 4:15pm
“I would love to see something come along that was just a little quirky, a little more special, that didn’t feel like the same movie that was released three weeks ago.”
Rango
Chico and Rita
Frankenweenie
The Secret of Kels
It doesn't get any quirkier than Rango and Frankenweenie. And Chico and Rita and Kels were very special and completely unformulaic.
....but the world goes 'round
#15Animated film directors SLAM recent animated box office hits.
Posted: 7/23/13 at 4:16pm
D
O
U
B
L
E
....but the world goes 'round
Updated On: 7/23/13 at 04:16 PM
#16Animated film directors SLAM recent animated box office hits.
Posted: 7/23/13 at 4:23pmI'd agree that Rango and Frankenweenie were out of the box as far as animated films go, but I was pretty bored by both. Secret of the Kels was visually stunning, but surprisingly thin on story.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
#17Animated film directors SLAM recent animated box office hits.
Posted: 7/23/13 at 4:37pmAtlantis will always hold a special place in my heart, also The Croods was surprisingly moving.
"I think lying to children is really important, it sets them off on the right track" -Sherie Rene Scott-
beautywickedlover
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/28/07
#18Animated film directors SLAM recent animated box office hits.
Posted: 7/23/13 at 8:20pmI've seen 'The Croods', 'Monsters University', and 'Despicable Me 2' this year and they are very well-done films. They are not the kind of films that are mainly marketing tools for toys. I thought they was plenty of effort and thought put into the scripts.
#19Animated film directors SLAM recent animated box office hits.
Posted: 7/23/13 at 8:39pm
(I'm a fan of Emperor's New Groove, as well... Troubled creation what with the original Elton John more serious movie planned, but it surprised me. And I just realized I have never seen Brother Bear--I think it's the only "canon" Disney animated feature, including the 1940s package films and Home on the Range that I haven't...)
Beauty--that's probably true, but they still seem--to me anyway--to be going for a similar audience and style--one which seems pretty typical of CGI flicks right now--the modern humour to appeal to parents, the buddy-comedy type format, etc.
I only recently found out that--after being reformed just a few years back, Disney's hand drawn department was shut down this year yet again. Sigh (though apparently they will keep some on staff and hire more animators if they decide to do any more.)
Oh well, at least we have two Studio Ghibli films out this year (Hayao Miyazaki's first as director since Howl's Moving Castle just opened in Japan--The Wind Rises, and in the Fall Isao Takahata's first movie in 15 years, the fairy tale adaptation The Tale of Princess Kaguya, is out this Fall in Japan.)
#20Animated film directors SLAM recent animated box office hits.
Posted: 7/23/13 at 8:42pm
2/3 are sequels that easily could have had their first movies end where they wore.
I miss hand-drawn animation. I wish somebody like Brad Bird returned to it. Hello, I wish there was a Looney Tunes movie that could just exist in its universe without interacting with live-action people. I liked Rango partially because it felt like John Logan seemed to take a lot from Tex Avery/Bob Clampett/Chuck Jones than anybody I have seen since Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle (not animated but it might as well be).
beautywickedlover
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/28/07
#21Animated film directors SLAM recent animated box office hits.
Posted: 7/23/13 at 8:56pm
"I miss hand-drawn animation."
"I only recently found out that--after being reformed just a few years back, Disney's hand drawn department was shut down this year yet again. Sigh (though apparently they will keep some on staff and hire more animators if they decide to do any more.)"
'The Princess and the Frog' was supposed to help bring back hand-drawn animation in 2009. But 'Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel' stole practically all of its family audiences.
The only reason why FOX released that movie in Christmas 2009 was because it would be used to cover losses just in case 'Avatar' bombed at the box office. They really did not need it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/business/media/09avatar.html?_r=0
Updated On: 10/4/13 at 08:56 PM
#22Animated film directors SLAM recent animated box office hits.
Posted: 7/23/13 at 10:06pm
I miss hand drawn animation too--the only big budget "mostly" hand drawn animation I can think of being done right now is stuff like Studio Ghibli. Princess and the Frog is a nice but underwhelming film, but it's too bad they only gave it that one chance (so far anyway) before deciding to switch to CGI. The CGI technique created for Tangled (and I guess used now in Frozen) is beautiful, but... (Apparently with Frozen there will be a "New/Old" Mickey short that Disney right now is hyping as a rediscovered early 30s short, but it sounds like was actually done by some of the remaining hand drawn animators.)
Strummer--exactly, these sequels are largely disappointing (it feels like we've had as many Ice Ages at this point as we've had Nightmare on Elm Streets)--at least when Disney was cranking their crappy ones out, they were direct to DVD.
#23Animated film directors SLAM recent animated box office hits.
Posted: 7/24/13 at 3:02pm
I for one can feel the pity everyone else is having about hand drawn animation not being prominant anymore (I grew up on the Disney Renaissance films), but at the same time, I think that we're going through a culture change in animation and which form of it is used.
I can understand where Wise, Sanders etc; are coming from but at the same time different animation studios are using creative techinques, like what Eric said for Tangled and Frozen (which may become my favorite animated film of the year); which gives the movies a beautiful feeling to them. Must I mention Paperman?
The real reason why the Disney films "The Princess and The Frog" and "Winnie the Pooh", failed to attract an audience's attention is two things: One, bad timing (Harry Potter part 2). Two, franchise idius. While those two films were really good in their own right, audiences love their franchises and wish to see sequels, reboots, etc instead of giving more love to the original films. This especially can happen with other studios other than Disney.
I did keep hearing in some animation forums that Disney is going through another Renaissance, but I disagree, it's more of a Disney Revival if anything else. That means that the movies from Princess and the Frog through Wreck it Ralph have top quailty from animation and story like the films of the early 90's. Which we all will say the films from the 90's were the best while kids will look back the same way about the new films when they grow up.
Those are my two cents about this whole thing.
EDIT: The only animated film I liked this year (so far) was Monsters University which had a fun college story behind it and it was the first Pixar film to use a new lighting system, abandoning the original system used since Toy Story.
I also can't stand Brother Bear, Home on the Range and also The Aristocats with a passion I really hate them.
Updated On: 7/24/13 at 03:02 PM
beautywickedlover
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/28/07
#24Animated film directors SLAM recent animated box office hits.
Posted: 7/29/13 at 9:14pm
I still stand by my belief that 'Monsters University', 'Despicable Me 2', and 'The Croods' are not films only used to sell merchandise. One of this week's new releases, 'The Smurfs 2' is CLEARLY one of those films. So is 'Planes' which will be released next month. Dreamworks' 'Turbo' was nothing more than a combination of 'Cars' and 'Ratatouille'.
I just saw 'Monsters University' again the day before it stopped playing at one of my nearby theaters. I still thoroughly enjoyed it. I plan on seeing 'Despicable Me 2' at least one more time in theaters before I start working full-time.
"So I guess Paranorman never happened."
"Paranorman underperformed, which I guess is the rationale for not mentioning it."
Its underperformance at the box-office is the main reason why it does not receive a whole lot of attention. Travis Knight, President of CEO of LAIKA, thought that the film's box office total was fine, but it still did not live up to his expectations.
http://collider.com/travis-knight-paranorman-laika-interview/
Box Office Mojo also named it and other stop-motion films as some of the losers of the 2012 Box Office.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3601&p=.htm
Videos