just found this on msn, personaly my favorite kinda movie, plus my son is working on one down london,

Is anyone else noticing that every other movie in the cinemas lately seems to be a 3D animation with animals in it? Usually something to do with a group of differing wildlife who get together and have a whacky and hilarious adventure? So have we. And it's getting beyond a joke. Here's what's got us feeling quite irate of late…


At the time of scrawling this, Barnyard: The Original Party Animals and Open Season are at positions three and four on the UK box office chart. The former is about a farm that goes crazy with animal fun as soon as the farmer leaves the premises, the latter is about a domesticated bear who ends up in (wait for it)… the wild!

'Hang on', we hear you ask. 'Isn't that exactly the same friendly-animals-in-nasty-places idea that fuelled The Wild which came out earlier this year. And wasn't The Wild an almost identical clone of the previous year's Madagascar?' Yes and yes. We might also point out that the premise of the disastrous Barnyard is, in essence, 'Toy Story on a farm.'


There is undoubtedly an unprecedented degree of creative bankruptcy among these titles. Let's not forget Over The Hedge and Hoodwinked, both of which emerged this year with the same character: a squirrel who reaches ridiculous degrees of hyperactivity when he drinks coffee. The Hoodwinked one was called Twitchy, the Over The Hedge one was called Hammy. One is ripping off the other, but it's unlikely that either really cares.

Why? Because they're both making a spectacular amount of money - that's why. Not only have nearly all these movies given decent box-office performances, they'll all go on to sell spectacular numbers of DVDs that will be lapped up by unfortunate parents hoping to buy themselves an hour and a half of peace.

But that's not where the real money's made. For every meaningless gopher, koala and donkey that can be squeezed into these productions, another fluffy toy hits the shelves. Better yet, each one has their own key-ring, pencil case and yo-yo, all of which means major cash-in-pocket for Mr movie exec. As the viewing public, it's our duty to point out the fact that the motivation behind such flicks has very little to do with telling a decent story.

Let's hope Aardman Animation can raise the bar a bit with this winter's Flushed Away. Then we'll all be looking to Pixar for Ratatouille next year. Both look promising, even if they are both about rats… (sigh).

I dig the 3D animated movies...however, I am getting worn out with all of the animals as of late...
Especially with 3 kids...the merchandising is beyond belief!

I will say that Aardman Animations (Wallace and Gromit) is quite the favorite in my book...and I fell in love with Pixar years ago with Monsters, Inc. (It still cracks me up!)


My $0.02

Splodge, which feature is your son working on?

Splodge, which feature is your son working on?
i think it's one of the rat ones mentioned above, about a dutch mouse fighting french rats in the 1500's, but i cant spell it, somethink like "desperue" may be one of our continental friends know it better, tizz a big fairy tale over there

Ah...

The Tale of Despereaux
http://www.katedicamillo.com/books/tale.html

that's the one, my son is an assistant graphics artist, researching and working on the backgrounds, all Hieronymus Bosch esc

Yeah I hate it when they rip each other off.

Madagascar and the wild was the most blatant.

Then Finding nemo and Fish story or shark tale or whatever its called.

I love animated movies, at least when they have awesome detail. But yes, they do way to many animal movies. There needs to be more diversity when it comes to characters and basic storylines...

bump already

Ok, I'll add the meat to your thread.

One, 3D animations were a feast for the eyes when they first appeared during 80's and 90's and all the way back to TRON.

Now it's been depleted where the big shots make a product instead of leaving the creativity to the artists.

I miss the Renaissance of animation like Animaniacs or Freakazoid. Now everything is being shipped off to Asia or anime for children are being badly overvoiced.

I miss cartoon flicks like Aladdin or Who Framed Roger Rabbits.

Lucky Pixar is putting the artists back in the top and making all the decisions. Now we have flicks like The Incurables.

Just lets not have Tom Hanks produce 3D animation.

TRONDONK! nuff said'
http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/107493/trondonk.html

Is Gordonk a resident creature at PSC?

wallace and gromit is not 3d... it's stop-motion animation... as is Burton's corpse bride and the nightmare before christmas...

when I have the time, I'll release the gordonk vs beach ninja short 3d movie in here... when I have the time... jobs that make my living kinda take my living, if ya know what i mean...