As the ones of you that following me on tumblr probably know already, this past weekend I've been watching several animated movies from the early 2000s.
Movie which I originally didn't catch on their original release date but have quickly manage to get a spot amongst my favorites movies of all time.
I think part of the reason why I didn't want "to like" those was their use of CGi 3D graphics alongside the beautiful hand-drawn animated characters. Which is kinda silly talking from today's point of view. With so little "2D" animated films around I see how silly it was to dismiss those when they actually represented some of the last good "cartoons" Hollywood would give us after Disney's renaissance i the 90s...
Anyway the following are these movies I watched this weekend, in the chosen order I decided to go through them~
Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas
Sinbad is a 2003 movie. It is based on the eponymous adventures of Sinbad from the Arabian Nights.
It was actually Dreamworks Animation's last animated movie. Due to the huge success of Shrek (mostly) they tried incorporating as many CGi elements as they could but the movie failed at the box office nonetheless.
The story was pretty fun and the score is simply epic!
Loved the adventure feel of this one, like a good old swashbuckling story like you don't see much anymore.
I really loved Sinbad.
The CGi monsters...well, okay the first one, the kraken was a bit hard to enjoy since it's the first one. But the rest was okay once you passed this first one.
The characters were all fun, loved the crew.
Definitively something to tag along Disney's Aladdin for an Arabian Nights-themed evening~
Titan A.E.
A 2000 animated movie.
This one was from 20th Century Fox Animation & Dragon's Lair's (and so much more) creator Don Bluth and his animation studio!
Spaaaace!
Very reminiscent of Revolution Studios' video games Broken Sword and Beneath a Steel Sky actually. Without Dave Gibbons' character designs of course.
Actually this is not a coincidence since Don Bluth Studio's did the animation for the cartoon segments of BS1 & 2. They would have actually worked on the 3rd one too before things were scratched and the game was turned into 3D. So I suspect lots of recycled elements from that would be 3rd 2D Broken Sword.
The main characters were fun (and looked quite similar to BS's George and Nico)
Lots of CGi as well.
The movie used an unusal big amount of copyrighted music numbers for some reason. (oh, so 90s!)
The movie sadly bombed at the box office too...
It forced Don Bluth to close his studio (that was his last one, yeah!) that's what you don't see any of his companies at the start of the new versions of Dragon's Lair like on Xbox Live...
Sad...
And I can see all the ways they spent all their money on silly matters. The big expensive voice cast (so few "real" voice actors and so many "actual" actors on all the background characters even!), big expensive special effects, big expensive soundtrack, big expensive (really bad) marketing...
The public couldn't understand what kind of movie it was...a kid's adventure or something more adult oriented?... So stupid...
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
A Disney underrated classic from 2001!
Really enjoyed the adventure direction of this one. It was the first big non-musical Disney and adventure at its finest!
I really loved the Indiana Jones-esque feel overall.
Michael J. Fox was expected to lead Titan AE originally...but ended up doing Atlantis instead! (his son's choice)
I'm very sad this one was also a big failure at the box office. (see a pattern here?)
Because I really loved all these animated adventure movies.
Animation, unlike live or even 3D CGi to some extent, is free of physical laws such as gravity and more. You can really get a good epic crazy adventure for cheaper than live action and yet more credible and lively than CGi.
Anyway, it was a fun movie. Loved it as well.
Treasure Planet
But none is as underrated as Treasure Planet.
A 2002 Disney movie, one of their last real "all ages" hand drawn animated movies until Princess and The Frog. They would develop 2 more animated movies after this one but more "cutey" and for children, with (talking) animals and stuff. No more big action adventure such as this one though.
A real gem!
Such a fun spectacular epic movie. A really fun scifi take on the classic tale "Treasure Island". Quite recognizable and it even makes sense!
It felt like a mix of Sinbad with Titan AE.
But the audience was leaving 2D for 3D back then... And now we're stuck with all these comedies aimed at children with CGi talking toys/ogres/cars/robots/fish/animals/monsters/ants/donkeys/cats/etc..
Where's the adventure genre? With human protagonists and all.
I know some detractors will say they're all good, I should give 'em a chance... But I just prefer hand drawn animation! (I always feel like I'm watching some video games cutscenes..and they're usually aimed at children clearly, with poop jokes for "more mature" dudes thrown in there -sigh-)
Also they don't do musical numbers anymore. Nor big epic action adventures as they used to in 2D, simple as that.
Anyway, those were all the final days of hand drawn animation for all their respective creators, in form or another. And they all were big failures commercially. No more Dreamworks animation, no more Don Bluth movie, an Atlantis 2 and Treasure Planet 2 got scrapped... And now I'm mostly watching these good ol' movies instead of the ones in theaters.
Hey, I'm saving money!
For the record: I'm also not a big fan of the people saying they would have made better as live action movies.
ReplyDeleteI mean, National Treasure's fun and all, but not quite as well thought or memorable as these above cartoons.
I still think that animated adventure movies have a chance, it's a much funnier genre that doesn't answer to the same rules as live action and can make old genres seem fresh. (swashbuckling, pulp, scifi, etc.)