Tuesday, July 22, 2003

Via Franklin's Findings, I read these articles which describe Disney's scaling back on and Dreamworks' decision to stop producing traditional, cell-derived animated films.

I can understand why they would want to stop throwing money into a black hole of diminishing returns. But like I said before, and I don't think anyone can convince me otherwise- it's not the fact that these films are mostly traditionally animated that is causing them to fail at the box office. I mean, Jesus God, there are scads of trad-animated shows on TV that are doing quite well, in fact, well enough to get made into feature films (which sometimes flop- does this refute my point? Who knows...)! It's the CONCEPTS that are lackluster and stale. I mean, geez. Sinbad? Treasure Island? The generic Star Wars-isms of Titan A.E.? I'm surprised they haven't looked into doing an outer-space Little Women!

And here's another thing of which I'm convinced- films like Shrek, Monsters Inc., and Toy Story would have been just as successful if they had been hand-drawn. You know why? Because these concepts were FRESH! There may have been a curiosity factor, especially in the case of Toy Story, which was one of the first Pixar efforts, but I honestly believe that it was the concept, story and dialogue which made these and other Pixar-type films as interesting as they were. Finding Nemo? Derivative of other films and stories, perhaps, but fresh and unique in its presentation.

Of course, I'm far from a Hollywood insider, and I'm sure the Disney and Dreamworks folks have done test after test and poll after poll. But this is just a viewpoint from an objective distance, and I have been known to be wrong before.

End of rant. I'm feeling better now...think I'll go lie down.

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