Oscarless Animated Films Part 4

Oscarless Animated Films Part 4: Teacher's Pet (2004)

This movie tells the story of a blue dog named Spot (Nathan Lane), who dresses up as a boy each day so he can go to school and meet up with his owner Leonard (Shaun Fleming). When Leonard's teacher, who also happens to be his mom, gets nominated for a special contest in Florida, Spot hitches along for the ride. Apparently, there's a 'wacko' named Ivan Krank (Kelsey Grammar), who may have the ability of helping Spot become a real boy.

I know what some of you are thinking. "Why did you choose this movie?" Well, I chose Teacher's Pet because, like I said back in this post...

http://asateriale.blogspot.com/2016/03/movie-review-teachers-pet.html

This movie is a guilty pleasure of mine. Also, 2004 was a rather rough year for animated features. Don't believe me? Well, let's go back to 2004 and see what other animated films were released that year.

In April, there was Disney's 45th animated film Home on the Range, which, at the time, was Disney's last hand-drawn film.

In May, there was Shrek 2, which would go on to gross over 900 million dollars worldwide.

In June, we had the US release of Europe's first CGI movie, Kaena: The Prophecy. While I don't hate it like other people do, I feel 'Kaena' had plasticky animation and a confusing plot.

August saw the US release of the critically panned Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie. I honestly haven't seen it, but I heard it wasn't that good.

In October, DreamWorks released their fourth CGI film Shark Tale. While it earned more than enough money to pay off its budget, the film got rather negative reviews. However, my mom likes it.

In November, we jumped into action with Pixar's sixth feature film, and their first PG film, The Incredibles. This film got very good reviews when it premiered, and is arguably the best animated film of that year.

Also released in November, the ever popular anthropomorphic sea sponge starred in his first movie, simply called The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. I'm actually not that fond of this movie because I feel the physics of the SpongeBob world don't belong on the big screen.

And finally, in December of that year, Robert Zemeckis's first motion-capture film, The Polar Express, was released. It was based on the book by Chris Van Allsburg. While it had dazzling effects, the realistic motion-captured human characters had rather dead-looking eyes and faces.

Honestly, there's not much else I can say about Teacher's Pet, since not much is known about behind the scenes of the movie, and the series in which Teacher's Pet is based on is yet to be released on DVD.

I know what else you might be thinking. "Teacher's Pet had creepy and awful-looking character designs!" Well, director and series creator Gary Baseman has a rather wacky and unique art style. You can see it in board games like Cranium, Hullabaloo, Super Showdown, and Doodle Tales.

Besides, I don't remember anyone complaining about Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs having awful character designs.

Do these designs look suitable for a CGI movie made on a 100 million dollar budget set to be released in theaters worldwide?

I also remember reading in a book that Walt Disney didn't like the character designs in 101 Dalmatians. All I am asking you to do is watch Teacher's Pet with an open mind and heart.

By this point, you are probably asking yourself "How come you've included all these random films, but not The LEGO Movie?" I didn't pick The LEGO Movie as an Oscarless Animated Film because I felt lots of people talked about it already. Also, back in 2015, when directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller found out 'LEGO' did not get the Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature, Phil tweeted that he made his own Oscar out of LEGOs.

That's all I have to say about this week's Oscarless Animated Film. Tune in next week when I talk about the most successful and popular anime film since Spirited Away, Makoto Shinkai's Your Name!

Oscarless Animated Films Part 3

Oscarless Animated Films Part 3: Tangled (2010)

Tangled is about a 17, going on 18-year-old girl named Rapunzel (Mandy Moore). She was secretly kidnapped by a woman named Mother Gothel (Donna Murphy) so she could use Rapunzel's magic hair to keep herself young. On the day before Rapunzel's 18th birthday, Rapunzel encounters a thief named Flynn Rider (Zachary Levi), and the both of them go on an adventure that will change both of their lives forever.

Tangled is the most expensive animated film to date, with a budget of 260 million dollars. Part of it was because of the big detail on the hair, and not just the hair of Rapunzel. In fact, ALL the characters had intensive hair stimulation.

Another reason was because Glen Keane did lots of research and development to make a CGI movie that felt like a hand-drawn Disney film. They even went as far as hiring a real hair stylist to teach them how hair works and flows.

Another thing to admire about Tangled is the stunning lantern scene, which used approximately 45,000 individual lanterns!

It should also be noted that this was the final Disney movie Glen Keane would work on, though he did draw some concept designs for Sergeant Calhoun, Jane Lynch's character in Wreck-it Ralph.

While Tangled didn't get the Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature it deserved, it did get the Oscar nomination for Best Original Song (I See the Light). There's also currently a TV series on Disney Channel based on Tangled, simply called Tangled: The Series. Instead of being CGI like the original film, this show is animated using Adobe Flash, like Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends and The Loud House.

There's also some new characters in the show: One of them is Cassandra. She's a bit similar to Marina from DreamWorks' Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas. So far,  it's not that bad of a show. I just hope it doesn't ruin or mock the original story and characters like how the Timon and Pumbaa TV series, Lilo & Stitch: The Series, and The Emperor's New School did.
That's all I have to say about this week's Oscarless Animated Feature. Tune in next week when I talk about the movie about the dog who wants to be a boy: The criminally underrated Teacher's Pet!

My Thoughts on Illumination's Films

My Thoughts on Illumination Entertainment's Films

To get prepared for Despicable Me 3, I decided to take a look back at Illumination Entertainment's previous six films (seven if you really want to count Hop).

1. Despicable Me (2010)

I actually talked about both Despicable Me 1 and 2 back in Top 30 Best CGI Movies of All Time (both of which were in the 30-21 range). I actually don't like the Despicable Me films as much as other people do because I feel like these films will entertain kids more than adults. However, I put up with them because my dad loves them. I just don't think DM 1 measures up to the quality of How To Train Your Dragon, Toy Story 3, or Tangled, which premiered the same year, but Despicable Me can still be an enjoyable film. It's just not for everyone.

2. Hop (2011)

I actually hate this movie quite a bit. Hop is about an Easter Bunny who wants to be a drummer and meddles with the life of a live-action human named Fred. This already sounds like one of those horrible live-action Alvin and the Chipmunks or Smurfs movies, and guess what? Tim Hill, who directed the first live-action Alvin and the Chipmunks, is the director of Hop. Want to know what else bothers me about this movie? The Easter Bunnies live on, ugh, Easter Island. The only known inhabitants are chicks (as in baby birds) and, of course, rabbits. However, there are no hens or roosters, so where do the bunnies get the eggs? There was a Walt Disney cartoon that explained how Easter Eggs and goodies would be made by bunnies that did it much better, simply called 'Funny Little Bunnies'.

In fact, I think I'd prefer that over Hop any day of the year!

3. The Lorax (2012)

I actually talked about this film back in Top 30 Worst CGI Movies of All Time, in which I stated that this adaptation of The Lorax took one of Dr. Seuss's greatest stories ever and turned it into a WALL-E knockoff. After a recent re-watch, have I changed my mind? Let's find out.

The story has been expanded so the human boy who visited the Once-Ler, now named Ted, wants to woo a girl named Audrey. Ted and Audrey live in Thneedville, an artificial town with no organic life except for humans. Not even pets. The citizens buy air in bottles and cans. Instead of eating meat and plants, the citizens eat gelatin copies of those foods.

This leads to a big question: Where does the O'Hare Industry get their canned air? Do they get them from another country? How can the people survive with no meat, fruits, or vegetables?

Audrey loves to paint trees, and Ted wants to get a tree so Audrey can marry him. In the original book, the unnamed boy didn't have a reason to visit the Once-Ler, and that makes sense. We didn't need to hear the boy's story in the original book. I am aware that in Blue Sky's Horton Hears a Who, they expanded on the Mayor of Whoville and his son Jojo, but that didn't interfere with the plot. In fact, it makes the characters more relatable and interesting. However, in The Lorax, the characters feel very generic and cliched, and they do more harm to the plot than help.

I actually liked how in the original book, the Once-Ler's face was never shown. It added mystery to the character. Also, like I said back in this post...

http://asateriale.blogspot.com/2017/01/top-30-worst-cgi-movies-of-all-time.html

The forest animals were diminished to Minion clones. 

4. Despicable Me 2 (2013)

Like I said back in this post...

http://asateriale.blogspot.com/2016/12/what-i-think-about-disneys-frozen.html

2013 was an awful year for animated films. However, Despicable Me 2 is a surprising exception. I enjoyed it more than Pixar's feature that year, Monsters University, because it stuck true to the original film without changing the characters drastically and without copying the same plot line as DM1. In MU, Mike is shown to be a nerd. However, in the original film, it was hinted multiple times that Sully was actually smarter than Mike. In the very first trailer, Mike and Sully were supposed to visit a kid's bedroom in Mongolia. However, Mike confused Mongolia with magnolia, and the room they end up in doesn't look Mongolian.

I also felt the film was a bit like a feature-length version of 'SpongeBob ScaredyPants'. I know there are some people that liked MU more than DM2, and even Frozen, but it doesn't live up to Pixar standards for me. However, I'll give it another try some time later this year.

5. Minions (2015)

I felt like Minions was a 90-minute gag fest with questions left unanswered. Why do the Minions wear goggles? How come there are no female Minions? How do they reproduce? Do Minions die? I also feel Sandra Bullock's character, Scralett Overkill, is a weak and overrated villain. In fact, I personally think Miriam in The Prince of Egypt, whom Bullock also voiced, was a more effective character. I also think Minions copied the torture scene in Muppet Treasure Island.

I still think it's insane that this film grossed over a billion dollars worldwide! Well, in the words of PT Flea from A Bug's Life "These are the lousiest circus bugs you've ever seen, and they're gonna make me rich!"

6. The Secret Life of Pets (July 2016)

I have actually seen this movie in theaters, but not during the summer. I saw this on September 17th, 2016 with my dad. I do admit, The Secret Life of Pets is basically Toy Story 1 with animals, but it's a passable film. It's no where near as bad as Norm of the North, but it's not as good as Zootopia or April and the Extraordinary World, either. It's somewhere in the middle. For the animation fans, there's something that might spark your interest: There's a good amount of Minions hidden throughout the film that appear as Easter Eggs. There's even a reference to Sing, their next film, in The Secret Life of Pets!

It's on the back of that bus.
I know what some of you are thinking by this point. "How come you're not being as harsh on this film as Illumination's other films?" Well, I originally saw this movie shortly after the premiere of a Loud House episode that really grinds my gears, 'The Loudest Yard'. Long story short, I feel like the writers on The Loud House like to torture Lincoln sometimes, just like how the writers on The Fairly OddParents would love to torture Timmy. After watching The Secret Life of Pets the next day, I felt a lot better.

7. Sing (December 2016)

Sing is surprisingly the longest animated film of 2016: It has a total running time of 110 minutes (1 hour and 50 minutes), just a couple minutes longer than Zootopia, Your Name (an anime film that was released in the US back on April 7th), and Moana. Sing is a marked improvement over previous Illumination films. This film actually focuses more on story than comedy, albeit a familiar one. Like Zootopia the same year, Sing talks place in an world populated entirely by anthropomorphic animals. However, the world of Sing isn't as inclusive as Zootopia; There are also primates, birds, reptiles, frogs, a snail, and even shrimp in the city!

Instead of being a detective story like Zootopia, however, Sing is a bit like 2011's The Muppets. Like how The Muppets hold a telethon to save the old Muppet theater, Buster Moon, a koala voiced by Matthew McConogy, holds a singing competition to save his theater from repossession. In other words, Sing is like American Idol but with animals. In a similar fashion to films like Shrek or Happy Feet, Sing has characters singing popular songs both classic and contemporary, and they actually mix quite nicely. Congratulations, Illumination Entertainment. You made a quality film without talking Twinkies. Sing is definitely not Disney or Pixar quality, but is definitely worth a watch.

Despicable Me 3 will hit theaters June 30th.

I will talk about Your Name on May 5th, when I talk about it as part of my Oscarless Animated Features project.

Oscarless Animated Films Part 2

Oscarless Animated Films Part 2: Rise of the Guardians (2012)

In this rather underappreciated DreamWorks film, a teenage boy named Jack (Chris Pine), who has the ability to create winter from thin air, teams up with Santa Claus (Alec Baldwin), the Easter Bunny (Hugh Jackman), the Tooth Fairy (Isla Fisher), and the Sand Man. Together, they have to stop Pitch (Jude Law) from making the children stop believing in these childhood icons so he can make fear reign.

This film is based on a series of books called  'Guardians of Childhood' by William Joyce, who also served as co-Executive Producer. He wrote the book because he felt sad after seeing kids outgrowing childhood icons like Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny. Joyce decided to make a novel series about these icons called 'Guardians of Childhood'.

What makes this different from previous and later DreamWorks films is because the atmosphere is darker than usual. It harkens back to the days when DreamWorks did hand-drawn films. There's also lots of attention to world building, character design, and character development. 'Guardians' also focuses more on story than comedy, and there are no pop-culture references or licensed songs.

And if you were to visually compare this to the two other films Joyce worked on, Robots and Meet the Robinsons, you can see that 'Guardians' is radically different. Robots and Meet the Robinsons look rather cartoony, while 'Guardians' looks very realistic, almost motion-capture quality.

This is Robots...

This is Meet the Robinsons...

And THIS is Rise of the Guardians. That's almost as crazy as the nine year progression from Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs!

We also get to see the very unique designs of the places Santa Claus (who now has a Russian accent), the Tooth Fairy (now known as Toothiana), and the Easter Bunny (who is now Australian) live. They all have different creatures as helpers. Santa has Sasquatches rather than elves...

Toothiana has smaller fairies to help her, with Baby Tooth being her favorite...

And the Easter Bunny has walking eggs waiting to be painted. Apparently, these eggs come from flowers rather than chickens, goannas, platypuses, or echidnas.

If you're wondering about the Sand Man, he has the power to create anything from sand that kids dream about. Anything can happen in dreams, you know.

This film was also dedicated to William Joyce's daughter, Mary Katherine Joyce. She passed away on May 2nd, 2010, at the age of 18. She suffered with a brain tumor. Rise of the Guardians was dedicated to her memory.

In William Joyce's next film, Epic, from Blue Sky Studios, the protagonist Mary Katherine was named after Joyce's late daughter.
Despite all the lavish care taken into making this film, Rise of the Guardians actually bombed at the box-office. It had to compete against Disney's feature that year, Wreck-it Ralph, as well as the Lord of the Rings spinoff The Hobbit.
That's all I have to say about this week's Oscarless Animated Film! Tune in next week when I talk about Disney's 50th animated feature, Tangled!

Movie Review: Furry Vengeance

Movie Review: Furry Vengeance                                                                                           4-10-17

In this train wreck of a film, Dan Sanders (Brendan Fraser), who works for a supposedly Eco-friendly house developing company, wants to destroy a forest he and his family moved in to to make room for a deluxe shopping mall. When the local woodland animals hear about this, they stop at nothing to prevent Dan from destroying their home.

Boy, was this movie bad. Furry Vengeance is so bad it makes Open Season look like Spirited Away! It makes Rugrats Go Wild look like The Lion King! It makes Paul Blart look like a Spielberg film! The story is cliched and predictable, the characters range from one-dimensional to downright racist and offensive, the jokes are inappropriate and too gross for kids, and the stunts and effects look cheap and corny. I am aware that the filmmakers used real animals, but certain scenes look cheap, like a scene of a turkey vulture chasing Dan.

There's also a scene in which a bear traps Dan in... Gah, a porta potty.

This is a movie that kids will ask their parents to see, and you expect them to think this is funny? What's wrong with you?!

The filmmakers use almost every kind of North American forest mammal imaginable, but no hoofed mammals. How come there are no deer or moose in this film?

In conclusion, Furry Vengeance is the worst environmental movie I've ever seen! If you want a good environmental film with a message kids will understand, I recommend WALL-E, Ferngully, or any of the Disney/Nature films! Stay away from Furry Vengeance!

Rating: 1 star out of 5

My DVD Collection 3.0 (Birthday Edition)

Today happens to be a special day: Today is my birthday! This year, I am turning 21. In honor of the occasion, I decided to update my DVD collection. These following titles are now in my collection, all of which I got for my birthday.
Moana (Blu-Ray)
Up (Blu-Ray)
Toy Story of Terror! (Blu-Ray)
Jim Henson's The Christmas Toy (DVD)
Splash (DVD)
Groundhog Day (DVD)
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (DVD)
Pixar Short Films Collection Volume 1 (DVD)
Mary Poppins (DVD)
Without further ado, let's see what's in store!

As usual, these are the movies I'm going to watch within the next week. However, I do not own Epic, Pom Poko, or, Glob forbid, Furry Vengeance. I'm willingly going to review Furry Vengeance tomorrow.

 Splash is on top of Kung Pu Panda.

 The one in the middle is Walt Disney's Swiss Family Robinson. I found it at a church sale during my vacation to Florida.

As you can see in this picture, I now have so many DVDs that I made room for another shelf.

 That's Toy Story of Terror on the top of that pile.

 I apparently have Up on both DVDs and Blu-Ray.

That's my DVD collection so far. Tomorrow, much to my dismay, I will review Furry Vengeance. I know it will not be a movie I will be kind towards.