CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Wow is it just me or this year alone has had a HUGE amount of full CGI family-movies made? Seriously, last year was only like Madagascar, Chicken Little, Sharks Tale and... I'm sure there was a couple more ^^ Now this year already there's been:

Hoodwinked
Doogals
Over the Hedge
Open Season
Ice Age 2

Computers really are taking over! v_v Not that they didn't help real animation, but real animation already feels dead... at least in North America (anime's still going strong^^) I think Curious George is the first actual cartoon movie that's been out in, well, quite a while! And sure, TV cartoon series are still plentiful as well but still :/
Anyone else almost miss good ol' fashioned cartoon movies and stuff sometimes? I mean, when stuff like Shrek and Finding Nemo came out, it was a semi-rare thing back then with Pixar and Dreamworks, and everyone can "ooo" and "aaa" back then. Now, it's much too common. Yeah, I do enjoy some of them and the humor in these kinda movies have somewhat similar taste... but sometimes I just miss good ol' classics that weren't AS CG^^

CG's just another type of animation. I think there's nothing wrong with it. Sure cel animation is nice, but I don't have a problem with both existing.

Funny thing is Australia hasn't recieved any of the movies you listed. (lol)

Warrior 4 Jesus wrote:Funny thing is Australia hasn't recieved any of the movies you listed. (lol)

Coming soon... I know Hoodwinked has already been shown here but all the rest are on the "coming soon" section on the Apple Trailer site^^

I enjoy CG movies good enough, if they are well-made.

I will be pretty disappointed if they completely ditch traditional animated movies however.

CG is alright, but I do prefer traditional cel animation. The problem I have with a lot of (not ALL) CG movies is that they often have all style and no substance. The graphics are awesome, but the story sucks. That's something I'm getting real tired of seeing. The same thing is happening in live action cinema now, too! It's so frustrating. Are there no writers left in the world, or are the studios just not willing to hire any?

I don't mind CG.
I don't prefer CG over traditional cel animation, and I don't prefer cels over CG.
As long as the movie itself is good, I couldn't care less.

I have to say that Curious George is quite refreshing to watch in the CG madness.

Well, I like a lot of the CG movies (like the Disney/Pixar ones, and I loved Shrek), but a lot of them just seem to be following the trend of the first few to be released. For instance, I watched Madagascar recently, and I really thought it was lacking in good comedy and story. Sure, the animation was nice, but without the entertainment aspect, CG movies are just a lot of fluff. I do miss the days of old-fashioned 2D animation, and I wish the movie companies would release more productions like those. Unfortunately, 2D animation is mostly used for direct-to-dvd Disney sequels and television shows.

Oh, and did you guys know that both Hoodwinked and Doogle were made by a Christian company?

ShiroiHikari wrote:CG is alright, but I do prefer traditional cel animation. The problem I have with a lot of (not ALL) CG movies is that they often have all style and no substance. The graphics are awesome, but the story sucks. That's something I'm getting real tired of seeing. The same thing is happening in live action cinema now, too! It's so frustrating. Are there no writers left in the world, or are the studios just not willing to hire any?

I can't think of any CG movie I really detested, actually... I have seen Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Antz, Shark Tales... Ok, so Shark Tales was stupid... Um... Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, Incredibles...

I couldn't sit through Bugs' Life, because I couldn't help comparing it to Antz, but Pixar was pretty much always on target, and Ice Age was decent, Shrek 1 and 2 were great... Really, I think CG movies had to have good stories because people didn't trust computers, and they suceeded... Even stuff like Reboot had a good story, (well, seasons 2 and 3 anyhow) The "wow" factor only gets them so far, they have to earn people's trust with kick-butt stories... And, they've pretty much succeeded.

I just got annoyed with Shark Tales because of its very obvious message (you'd have to be incredibly naive not to pick up that, IMNSHO)

Bobtheduck wrote:
I just got annoyed with Shark Tales because of its very obvious message (you'd have to be incredibly naive not to pick up that, IMNSHO)

"Obvious message"? You mean, the fact that all the characters look like their VAs?

Tenshi no Ai wrote:"Obvious message"? You mean, the fact that all the characters look like their VAs?

Nah, I think he means the whole gay tolerance thing. I caught that pretty quickly. :/

Radical Dreamer wrote:Nah, I think he means the whole gay tolerance thing. I caught that pretty quickly. :/

Apparently it's been a while since I saw that movie... :/ *doesn't remember*

No offense to all of you who like CGI animation, but I absolutely can't stand it, and have stopped watching most TV because I was so sick of being bombarded by the commercials for the newest CGI flicks. The only CGI film I can tolerate is "Toy Story 2" because I love Jody Benson and I'm not afraid to admit that I love Barbie. I'm basically a GACer(hard-core fan of Golden Age Cartoons) and '80s toon fan(Jem, She-Ra, etc.) who got into shoujo anime and manga.

[quote="MomoAdachi"]No offense to all of you who like CGI animation, but I absolutely can't stand it, and have stopped watching most TV because I was so sick of being bombarded by the commercials for the newest CGI flicks. The only CGI film I can tolerate is "Toy Story 2" because I love Jody Benson and I'm not afraid to admit that I love Barbie. I'm basically a GACer(hard-core fan of Golden Age Cartoons) and '80s toon fan(Jem, She-Ra, etc.) who got into shoujo anime and manga. ]

I totally understand that. While I do like many CGI films, there are certain ones I can't stand (Madagascar and Shark Tale, anyone?). The only CGI movies I'll watch are the Disney/Pixar or Shrek movies. I'm a much bigger fan of 2D animation, because it seems like it takes so much more work to produce it. Think about it...It took Disney 9 years to make Peter Pan, but only 4 to make Toy Story. I love both of these movies, though. XD And really, on the one hand, CGI is good for the companies who want to release movies faster. On the other hand, things that are hand-made seem much more fascinating than those made by computers or machines of any kind.

CGI is good for special effects in live action movies, but to have every animated movie come out in CGI is really dissapointing, I think. I would prefer a larger variety of American animated movies, but until then, I guess we'll have to stick with anime.

Radical Dreamer wrote: Think about it...It took Disney 9 years to make Peter Pan, but only 4 to make Toy Story.

That actually makes it sound... depressing in a sense :/ I mean, not like Peter Pan had any better special effects than any other Disney movie.

Oy, when I went to see Ice Age 2 ALL the commercials were Fox/Dreamworks CGI movies :/ Like the ones I've mentioned, Over the Hedge, Open Season and Barnyard :/ The plots for Over the Hedge and Barnyard were... something else though (animals that want to eat people's garbage and cows that want to get back to people for pushing them over?) I realize they are going for the comedic characters in these movies and seem to be... a different sort of comedy with CGI than cartoons, but sometimes I wonder about those storylines^^

Tenshi no Ai wrote:That actually makes it sound... depressing in a sense :/ I mean, not like Peter Pan had any better special effects than any other Disney movie.

ROFL, true. XD But that was back in the 70's or so...Probably earlier, I really don't know. XD

Oy, when I went to see Ice Age 2 ALL the commercials were Fox/Dreamworks CGI movies :/ Like the ones I've mentioned, Over the Hedge, Open Season and Barnyard :/ The plots for Over the Hedge and Barnyard were... something else though (animals that want to eat people's garbage and cows that want to get back to people for pushing them over?) I realize they are going for the comedic characters in these movies and seem to be... a different sort of comedy with CGI than cartoons, but sometimes I wonder about those storylines^^

Yeah, storylines are the other issue. If the movie has a good storyline, I'll probably love it anyways, but if it doesn't have a good story, doesn't make me laugh, and doesn't strike me as interesting, then there's a problem. XD Animated movie producers need to remember to keep their movies funny for both children and adults. That factor can make all the difference with American animated movies. *nodnod*

Radical Dreamer wrote:Nah, I think he means the whole gay tolerance thing. I caught that pretty quickly. :/

It`s been awhile since I saw it.

Elaborate.

I like traditional cell animation and don't want to see it go the way of the dinosaur

We won't see traditional animation go "the way of the dinosaur" any more than we'll see practical special effects go "the way of the dinosaur" They'll go the way of the... Oh, the broom I guess... People didn't stop using brooms because the vacuum was invented, they just used it for fewer things. Trust me, there are many times that a broom is so much more appropriate, but vacuums are nice too.

As for Shark tale, the vegitarian shark who wasn't accepted by his meat eating family was a very blatant symbol for the gay son in the masculine family. He was born that way, he's tried to act "carnivorous" but never works, and then there's the fact that the veggie eating shark is rather flamboyant and dresses like a more docile (but ironically still meat eating) sea creature (cross-dressing, putting makeup on). Yeah, there wasn't much mystery to the message in Shark Tale, and I'm surprised a lot of people didn't catch it.

I'm a little disenchanted with CGI movies. I LOVE Pixar's stuff, but besides that a lot of these CG movies don't seem at all...timeless. They're an interesting novelty that grow tired after the third or fourth viewing, if even that. It's just disappointing.

Plus, a lot of times cell animation tends to be more stylised and...artsy! Compare, say, Howl's Moving Castle to Robots--Howl's is full of memorable images and breathtaking views, where Robots...there's that wonderful scene where they take the odd transportation, but besides that there's really nothing much new about that movie.

I disagree with your Shark Tale theory, though. It's not impossible, but it sort of sounds like you're seeing something that isn't really there...kinda reminds me of yaoi fans matching together characters that rarely even speak to each other. (Not that I like Shark Tale. It was obviously trying to cash-in on Finding Nemo's popularity.)

MorwenLaicoriel wrote:I disagree with your Shark Tale theory, though. It's not impossible, but it sort of sounds like you're seeing something that isn't really there...kinda reminds me of yaoi fans matching together characters that rarely even speak to each other. (Not that I like Shark Tale. It was obviously trying to cash-in on Finding Nemo's popularity.)

I'll have to disagree, then, because there was quite a strong message of tolerance for that sort of thing in that movie. And likening it to yaoi fans' fantasies? A little over-the-top, methinks.

Pixar's the only American company that can do this stuff right, though.

rocklobster wrote:Pixar's the only American company that can do this stuff right, though.

I concur. Their movies make me laugh the hardest, and none of them have dissapointed me in any way yet. Pixar seems to know how to make the movie appropriate and funny for children and adults alike, and that's a great achievement in today's media. *applauds Pixar*

Radical Dreamer wrote:I'll have to disagree, then, because there was quite a strong message of tolerance for that sort of thing in that movie. And likening it to yaoi fans' fantasies? A little over-the-top, methinks.

Maybe a little. ^^; But my point is, I'm tired of people some how seeing a homosexual connotation in something that I think doesn't nessisarily have it. I mean, a lot of films have characters that are a little effiminate--SOME have that agenda, but not all of them. (Lord of the Rings, anyone? Legolas is really effiminate, but does that mean he's gay? No.)

rocklobster wrote:Pixar's the only American company that can do this stuff right, though.

I soo agree with that!

In fact, my dream is to someday to work for them.

[quote="MorwenLaicoriel"]Maybe a little. ^^]


No... Gundam wing and LotR and, recently, Silent Hill (people say stuff about Cybil because of her haircut) have nothing on this. The Shark Tales thing was obvious. It's actually sorta hard to miss it. It's not "reading into" it at all. Not anymore than it is to "read into" those naked scenes on Austin Powers or the symphony scene in Wrongfully Accused, or the "stock footage festival" in the Simpsons... We know what all that stuff is supposed to be, it's a bit subversive, but still pretty obvious... The innuendo in Shark Tales (about the analogy of the vegetarian shark) was simple. That's what it was.

As for comparing me to yaoi fans? I don't see that stuff, normally... I didn't realise all the imagery in Wild Wild West before I watched the commentary. I didn't realize what the aliens were built to represent in the alien movies until I watched the making of interview with Giger... The Shark tales thing was a lot more obvious than that.

As long as it's not Saban Entertainment, I'm happy.