CG Animation not fading away anytime soon...

For those of you out there that were wishing that this style of animation would just quietly fade away (I'm not one of them), I have some bad news... Read on...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/03/movies/03anim.html?th&emc=th

Peace :)
NIMHmaniac

I, for one, do not wish for the animation style itself to die out. I would prefer it try to improve itself a little more instead of some people using it as an excuse for a cheap animation family flick. Seriously, Ice Age and Shrek were some pretty good franchises, but please, MOVE ON! I can't even believe LucasArts actually hopped onto the bandwagon with the recently released Clone Wars and its' following CG-animated series. Yeah, Clone Wars, we NEVER saw that before and we needed so much more new characters to learn about (and more Jar Jar. Ugh.) >.>

Pixar, on the other hand, has met almost every one of my expectations with their movies and they just seem to get better and better; Carefully planned, well animated, and beautifully executed. That is the example that all CG producing networks and companies should pay attention to. Dreamworks has proved to produce some interesting movies; Over the Hedge, and Shrek (Have yet to see Monsters vs Aliens). Just as long as DW looks back and learns from their mistakes (the cancellation of Shark Tale 2 was a big step forward :3) I'm hoping they'll improve.

As for the upcoming release of Astroy Boy, well being a fan of the franchise I hope it proves to be a worth-while experience. I'm really hoping it will be better than other American-made Anime-to-movie productions such as Speed Racer and Dragonball Evolution.

I think the problem is that there are too many CG movies being made that are clogging the market. Pixar and Dreamworks are the true masters. They know how to make good movies (for the most part). Most (or all) of the other companies just take simple versions of the technology developed by the legends and try to make cheap flicks for little kids. Most of said flicks end up stinking badly.
One other company that seems to be trying to do it right is Sony. The first Open Season was a pretty good movie. Surf's Up wasn't that good, but it proves Sony is making an effort to produce something more than a waste of consumers' money.
LucasArts...what have you done?!? I really didn't mind the prequels, even Jar Jar provided some comic relief. But the Clone Wars was an event that was best left mentioned, not covered. And certainly not covered as badly as they are doing it now. There is no forseeable plot in the series, just a bunch of fighting and explosions. They seem to be trying to sell off a great franchise as infantile material. George Lucas, if you are reading this, stop doing this to Star Wars. If people didn't like your prequels, do you really think they will take kindly to something even worse?

...actually, have any of you seen Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs? The first two were okay but not too memorable, but the 3rd one is actually the best one so far in my opinion, especially watching it in 3D. I think they're 20th Century Fox, so if they continue the trend of improving maybe they could compete as well. Open season was allright, but I wouldn't say it's very memorable. Not like Over the Hedge or Toy Story or anything. BTW, I agree that Pixar is pretty great, but I don't think they'll be perfect forever. I could always be wrong but their next lineup of movies is for the most part several sequels, and when they start making sequels it means they're either short on original ideas or are just trying to milk what they have going already because they don't quite trust what new ideas they have... I dunno I just know I didn't really like Cars 1 that much and I don't look forward to Cars 2. However I'll leave an open mind to Toy Story 3 as they've been a classically good franchise so far. However Shrek 4 is simply murderous overkill, they should have stopped at 2.

Dreamworks has a pretty up-and-down history with their movies it seems.

I dunno about the rest of you, but I won't start running for the hills until Disney starts deciding to remake their old cartoons in CGI, I think we can take that as a sign of the animation apocalypse.

CGI is ok..it took me a while to warm up to it though. It would never replace 2d animation in my eyes, just another art style to enjoy. A lot of CGI movies were huge misses in my eyes such as Cars and Shrek 3, but there are 2d movies I didn't care much for either.

Only Pixar has made the best CGI movies, well some of them. Bugs' Life was the worst and Ratatouille is the best Pixar movie (in my opinon).
Dreamworks' Polar Express and Monster House were good too.

Here's a great piece of animation I stubbled upon. Its the opening cinematic to The Beatles Rockband game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSLLxRmR3nY&feature=fvst

Edit: Oh, and I hate Finding Nemo.

I agree about Bug's Life. That was the worst movie Pixar has made so far, although it is still alright for an animated movie.
To be honest, I was a bit disappointed with the latest Ice Age movie. It just didn't seem to compare as well with the first two, despite the two brilliant new characters. I still got a lot of laughs out of it, so the money was still well-spent.
Shrek 3...seemed to be the moment when they jumped the shark, as they say. The first two were great movies that had good humor, and a satisfying plot to go along with it. But I guess Dreamworks thought they could pull off Shrek 3 without a good plot and just have ridiculous humor. What they have revealed as the plot for Shrek 4 is not impressing me, either. One can only hope that the Puss in Boots spinoff will clear the writers' heads enough to give the last Shrek film (5) what it needs to end the series on a high note. Back to reality, I think the damage is already done, and it will take something extraordinary to bring Shrek back to its initial glory.

Well, we can always hope, even though I have to agree with you; Shrek 3 was a massive step down from Shrek 2. Also, I hear a lot of people complain that there aren't more "mature" CGI movies. The only all-CGI one I know of is Beowulf. Damn Animation Age Ghetto...

Anyway, A good sign Pixar is doing very well, actually, is the fact that there is a company that unabashedly rips them off, creating sub par movies with striking similarities, it's called Video Brinquendo I believe.

And I stand by my previous comment; The day Disney announces CGI remakes of it's old movies is the day we can really start to worry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHfMpq7H9qQ&feature=PlayList&p=69F308D8FF48BE2A&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=3

Skip to 1:31

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHfMpq7H9qQ&feature=PlayList&p=69F308D8FF48BE2A&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=3

Skip to 1:31

My point has been proven. I'll ready my escape pod.

Emergency Edit: Even if my point wasn't proven, ill still ready my escape pod. That WAS hilarious, though.

I dunno about the rest of you, but I won't start running for the hills until Disney starts deciding to remake their old cartoons in CGI, I think we can take that as a sign of the animation apocalypse.

Hey Evondral,

You may want to start packing altough I would advise that you stick around to see just how this turns out (See Link) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1014759/

Peace :D
NIMHmaniac

Aha! But that is Tim Burton, which might mean that it's good! Then again, it might be a failure, which might discourage remakes! But if it's successful, than it might ENcourage them!

...Great, I'm gonna need to think on that one

:( I find that the fact most animated films today are 3D cgi failures with stupid humor is just depressing. I wish they could start doing 2D again, but with flash to save work from drawing everything.

Doesn't seem like 2-D is fading away either..

CNN Link[=http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/12/13/boxoffice.ew/index.html]CNN Link

Princess and the Frog is currently No. 1 at the box office. I personally haven't seen it yet. I may soon though.