Here be dragons

[Radrappy]

I know a lot of you are animation nuts. "How to Train your Dragon" comes out tomorrow and I've got to say I'm pretty stoked for it. I'm a pretty big fan of lilo and stitch and hope the directing duo of Sanders and Deblois can pull it off again. I'll definitely post my impressions when I catch a screening. How about you guys? Excited?!

[Crowbar]

I've not really been terribly interested in Dreamworks' stuff for a while. I actually got a bit of an advance preview of this over a year ago (I think?) when Shelly Page visited my uni and showed some stuff from it. It didn't look very special to me then.

What, if anything, sets it apart in your eyes? Dreamworks have always seemed to me to mostly just do blander, derivative versions of Disney/Pixar films (which are often pretty bland to start with...). The only Dreamworks film (other than Aardman co-productions) I've been able to convince myself to watch in the last few years is Kung Fu Panda, which had some decent action sequences but that was about it.

[Arcade]

Well they did Toy story, Seeking Nemo and the Incredibles, but you know for the start this isnt going to be a great movie, right?

[Crowbar]

Well they did Toy story, Seeking Nemo and the Incredibles, but you know for the start this isnt going to be a great movie, right?

XD

[Arcade]

Oh right that was PIxar... Whats so great about Dreamworks? Antz and that was done more than ten years ago...

And maybe the first Shrek movie, but thats alll...

[Segaholic2]

Not a fan of Dreamworks. Conversely, Pixar is one of my favorite companies ever.

[Rob-Bert]

While I'm pretty happy we're getting another giant reptile movie for the first time in a while and applaud the whole Norse setting they have going on, I'd wager a dollar to a donut this'll end up being the standard Dreamworks schlock.

[Dr. BUGMAN]

Dragons kind of lost their mysticism once I encounter losers that use them as sexual identities. Or identities at all, really.

[Radrappy]

I don't think Dreamworks actually has any of their fans over 10 years old. That being said, this is being directed by the guys that made Lilo and Stitch! Surely that warrants some excitement. If you at all enjoyed kung fu panda, why shouldn't this film be potentially of the same caliber? It's doing extremely well critically and everyone that's seen the full movie in advance claims it's really something special.

Dragons kind of lost their mysticism once I encounter losers that use them as sexual identities. Or identities at all, really.

hey man, the same thing plagues the sonic fandom.

[G.Silver]

I was completely ambivalent about it until I read right here about who was making it. I guess Dreamworks can't really go around saying that on their trailers and instead are all like "From the People who make Shrek!" like that is somehow desirable.

I guess these two have been working on Lilo & Stitch non-stop since 2002? How is the TV series?

[Dr. BUGMAN]

Do you like Pokemon? Do you really like Pokemon. Do you wake up in the morning thinking "hey, I want to watch Pokemon set in Hawaii"?

The best (of course worst) part is how Stitch went from crazed, maniacal little stinker to completely bland. Yeah, I guess it makes sense that he'd mellow out after finding a loving family, but jeez.

[Esrever]

I don't think they were actually all that involved in the Lilo and Stitch franchise, other than Sanders continuing to provide Stitch's voice.

For a long time post-Lilo and Stitch, Sanders was working as the director for "American Dog"... a Disney CG picture that was eventually retooled into Bolt. (Sanders was kicked off the project and moved to Dreamworks as a result.)

[Zeta]

Am I the only one who finds the Lilo and Stitch franchise mediocre?

Although I have to admit Kevin McDonald playing a gay alien still makes me chuckle.

[Green Gibbon!]

Stitch is bullshit popular over here. He's by far and away the most prevalent Disney character I've seen on this side of the ocean - he's even topped Pooh. That white kitten from the Aristocats also turns up surprisingly often. Japanese teenage girls love their obscure Disney.


I haven't watched or been motivated to watch any Dreamworks films since the first Shrek. The previews for How to Train Your Dragon don't make it look like it's going to be the one to buckle the trend of calculated mediocrity. But I didn't really like Lilo & Stitch, either.

[Neo]

Am I the only one whose brain shuts off at the sight of a 3D CG movie? It was kind of a novelty when they first came out, I mean, I went to see Toy Story, but none of them really did anything for me, so I just stopped caring.

It's actually surprising that the forum didn't crap itself out.

[gr4yJ4Y]

Dragons kind of lost their mysticism once I encounter losers that use them as sexual identities. Or identities at all, really.

I really had to think twice about actually clicking on this thread and reading it. I assumed it would be something I had no interest in.

[CM August]

Stitch is bullshit popular over here. He's by far and away the most prevalent Disney character I've seen on this side of the ocean - he's even topped Pooh.

I'll say. Christ. It didn't matter where we were, if a store had a toy/trinket section you could find a Stitch item at the very least. I was tempted to buy a "Shinshu Stitch" towel as a novelty, but thought against it.

[Crowbar]

It's really that popular over there? I guess it is the only western cartoon that ever seems to make the top 10 in the TV rankings (according to ANN, which sources from Video Research).

[Green Gibbon!]

I'm kind of curious to know why all the hate for 3D. I thought the technology was interesting and I've been really curious to see how it works. Is it ineffective, too distracting, or what?

[G.Silver]

I think it's all the ire that would normally be leveled at mediocre 2D animated products, but multiplied against the still-relatively-new 3D gimmick, and resentment that 2D animation has fallen by the wayside (and especially due to the possibility that the mainstream public prefers the 3D).

[Esrever]

I find the end results of 3D films to be really irregular... some shots will look cool, but others will just look flat or out of focus, or strobe or flicker violently.

Then there's the glasses, which I have to wear on top of my actual glasses, and -- this is the part I really hate -- have tinted lenses that noticeably reduce the brightness and colour vibrancy of the film.

And of course best of all, 3D movie tickets cost an extra four bucks! Which, of course, is the number one reason 3D gets slapped on to all these things. (Including movies that weren't even filmed in 3D to begin with!)

[Delphine]

DURF

But in all seriousness, CG is just another form of media, it can be either good or bad. I cry like a little bitch when I watch Up. Every damn time. The only Dreamworks CG film I enjoyed was Shrek, and I was never particularly attached to it, I just thought it was fun.

[Green Gibbon!]

Of course it's a brand new technology so there are still kinks that need to be ironed out, but I don't see it in the long run being any more of a gimmick than sound or color films. I think the main issue is focus. Of course in most shots the background elements will be out-of-focus which is probably pretty disorientating when you're trying to "look" instead of just, y'know "watch".

On the other hand, that's not an issue that games have since everything has to be in-focus all the time anyway. I'm pretty eager to see how effective it will be especially in games when 3D TV's go on sale.


Having all that said, I've yet to actually see this 3D tech first-hand, so maybe it's sheer curiosity talking.

[Opa-Opa]

I cry like a little bitch when I watch Up.

Damn that Pixar. I got that with Cars the other day.

Friggin' Cars!

[Zeta]

Blarg, Cars is easily their worst movie.

I hate it even more because I despise small-town America.

At the very least, I've heard that Cars 2 will not only be a true race movie, but will take place across all of Europe, so it might actually be watchable.