Pturretdactyl wrote:

Okay, gotcha. So something along the lines of Rovio probably should've migrated (ha ha bird pun) from Angry Birds while they had the chance? Sure it might not do as well at first, but at least they could have less of a reputation of milking one game idea to death.

I'm afraid I don't know what that is. I never got anywhere near Angry Birds when it was a thing. I keep up with most things but there's plenty of gaps in my knowledge too!

Pturretdactyl wrote:

Alright, so what about family animation and other media that tries to be meaningful or relate to its target audience? Let's ignore the money aspect for a second- I guess my question is what makes it work really well and what makes it really cringe-worthy?

Now there's a fun question. For me at least I enjoy animation that has enough self-awareness to not be utterly blind to the fact that it's not just children watching. The LEGO Movie was an excellent example of this - it had some simplistic things that I imagine would appeal to many children (a chosen-one hero, some slapstick comedy, some exciting confrontations) but it also had elements dealing with corporate dominance, group identity, and ultimately perspective.

On the other hand the missus and I tried to watch Frozen and switched it off after perhaps twenty minutes. We couldn't see the appeal at all. The setting was relatively generic, the characters (at that point) lacked nuance, and the music didn't compare favourably to the Disney films we'd grown up with.

We made it all the way through Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs but honestly we weren't watching intently. It lost us and ended up as the film on in the background. It too seemed rather flat and lifeless compared with, say, Up. There's a film that impressed me - it managed joyful adventure as well as ponderings on mortality, obligation, and personal discovery.

cs156175 wrote:

Illumination's Despicable me 1 and 2 were good, and they prove they can make good movies.
Zootopia, inside out, and tangled are all great.
And unlike everyone else on earth it seems, I liked frozen. The animation was amazing, the plot was interesting, Elsa doesn't have a love interest, and the songs are arguably the best part. Sure, it's a bit overrated, but it doesn't make it a bad movie.
Wreck it Ralph was good, even though I'm not a gamer so many of the references went over my head.
I think That's everything i have to say. Oh and as for bluesky animation, I liked rio and the peanuts movie. Please stop with ice age movies though. It was good the first time, but ice age is dead. please no more sequels/threequels/quadquels.

Frozen is ok but it was one of your average Disney princess musical movies. I can see why they wanted to do that because of keeping the Disney tradition with princess movies. The first two Despicable me movies were great, but the Minions spin off was bad. It stereotyped the British so much ._. Now I had enough of those yellow minions, and you seem them everywhere now. I remember watching Wreck it Ralph. It was an excellent movie and I caught most of the references (even though I was so young at the time) Bluesky is kind of good, but yes, the Ice Age franchise has been up for about a decade I think? They need to stop and move on to something fresh.

raspykoo wrote:

cs156175 wrote:

Illumination's Despicable me 1 and 2 were good, and they prove they can make good movies.
Zootopia, inside out, and tangled are all great.
And unlike everyone else on earth it seems, I liked frozen. The animation was amazing, the plot was interesting, Elsa doesn't have a love interest, and the songs are arguably the best part. Sure, it's a bit overrated, but it doesn't make it a bad movie.
Wreck it Ralph was good, even though I'm not a gamer so many of the references went over my head.
I think That's everything i have to say. Oh and as for bluesky animation, I liked rio and the peanuts movie. Please stop with ice age movies though. It was good the first time, but ice age is dead. please no more sequels/threequels/quadquels.

Frozen is ok but it was one of your average Disney princess musical movies. I can see why they wanted to do that because of keeping the Disney tradition with princess movies. The first two Despicable me movies were great, but the Minions spin off was bad. It stereotyped the British so much ._. Now I had enough of those yellow minions, and you seem them everywhere now. I remember watching Wreck it Ralph. It was an excellent movie and I caught most of the references (even though I was so young at the time) Bluesky is kind of good, but yes, the Ice Age franchise has been up for about a year I think? They need to stop and move on to something fresh.

Pretty sure it's more than a year

Flamekebab wrote:

Pturretdactyl wrote:

Okay, gotcha. So something along the lines of Rovio probably should've migrated (ha ha bird pun) from Angry Birds while they had the chance? Sure it might not do as well at first, but at least they could have less of a reputation of milking one game idea to death.

I'm afraid I don't know what that is. I never got anywhere near Angry Birds when it was a thing. I keep up with most things but there's plenty of gaps in my knowledge too!

Pturretdactyl wrote:

Alright, so what about family animation and other media that tries to be meaningful or relate to its target audience? Let's ignore the money aspect for a second- I guess my question is what makes it work really well and what makes it really cringe-worthy?

Now there's a fun question. For me at least I enjoy animation that has enough self-awareness to not be utterly blind to the fact that it's not just children watching. The LEGO Movie was an excellent example of this - it had some simplistic things that I imagine would appeal to many children (a chosen-one hero, some slapstick comedy, some exciting confrontations) but it also had elements dealing with corporate dominance, group identity, and ultimately perspective.

On the other hand the missus and I tried to watch Frozen and switched it off after perhaps twenty minutes. We couldn't see the appeal at all. The setting was relatively generic, the characters (at that point) lacked nuance, and the music didn't compare favourably to the Disney films we'd grown up with.

We made it all the way through Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs but honestly we weren't watching intently. It lost us and ended up as the film on in the background. It too seemed rather flat and lifeless compared with, say, Up. There's a film that impressed me - it managed joyful adventure as well as ponderings on mortality, obligation, and personal discovery.

Yes, the Lego Movie was a great movie. I remember seeing it when it came out. There was a couple of themes I could grasp from my age at the time- teamwork, being unique, originality, knowing that there's a positive outcome to a situation. I wonder what the Lego Movie 2 would look like.

cs156175 wrote:

raspykoo wrote:

cs156175 wrote:

Illumination's Despicable me 1 and 2 were good, and they prove they can make good movies.
Zootopia, inside out, and tangled are all great.
And unlike everyone else on earth it seems, I liked frozen. The animation was amazing, the plot was interesting, Elsa doesn't have a love interest, and the songs are arguably the best part. Sure, it's a bit overrated, but it doesn't make it a bad movie.
Wreck it Ralph was good, even though I'm not a gamer so many of the references went over my head.
I think That's everything i have to say. Oh and as for bluesky animation, I liked rio and the peanuts movie. Please stop with ice age movies though. It was good the first time, but ice age is dead. please no more sequels/threequels/quadquels.

Frozen is ok but it was one of your average Disney princess musical movies. I can see why they wanted to do that because of keeping the Disney tradition with princess movies. The first two Despicable me movies were great, but the Minions spin off was bad. It stereotyped the British so much ._. Now I had enough of those yellow minions, and you seem them everywhere now. I remember watching Wreck it Ralph. It was an excellent movie and I caught most of the references (even though I was so young at the time) Bluesky is kind of good, but yes, the Ice Age franchise has been up for about a year I think? They need to stop and move on to something fresh.

Pretty sure it's more than a year

Ooops, not a year, a decade xD. (I have to edit my post now)

Ah, yes, Minions was another one we didn't make it through. We've watched the Despicable Me films several times but Minions just didn't work for us. It seemed to be fairly uninspired slapstick and little else. Bit of a shame really as I quite liked them as background characters!

Wreck-It Ralph was somewhere in between for us. I'd give it about a 6.5/10 overall. It was a tad too simplistic for my tastes and there was a lot of saccharine “Just be yourself!” type messaging in there. I don't disagree with that message in principle but it didn't feel particularly necessary in this case. There were plenty of redeeming moments but they felt more optional to the narrative than woven into the fabric of it. I liked it enough to rewatch it but the same was true the second time around.

So I suppose from that I'd say that a good family movie, in my view, needs to have a core narrative that works on several levels. Without the rest will struggle to stand up.

raspykoo wrote:

Yes, the Lego Movie was a great movie. I remember seeing it when it came out. There was a couple of themes I could grasp from my age at the time- teamwork, being unique, originality, knowing that there's a positive outcome to a situation.

You may well enjoy it a great deal when you're a bit older too.

Flamekebab wrote:

Ah, yes, Minions was another one we didn't make it through. We've watched the Despicable Me films several times but Minions just didn't work for us. It seemed to be fairly uninspired slapstick and little else. Bit of a shame really as I quite liked them as background characters!

Wreck-It Ralph was somewhere in between for us. I'd give it about a 6.5/10 overall. It was a tad too simplistic for my tastes and there was a lot of saccharine “Just be yourself!” type messaging in there. I don't disagree with that message in principle but it didn't feel particularly necessary in this case. There were plenty of redeeming moments but they felt more optional to the narrative than woven into the fabric of it. I liked it enough to rewatch it but the same was true the second time around.

So I suppose from that I'd say that a good family movie, in my view, needs to have a core narrative that works on several levels. Without the rest will struggle to stand up.

raspykoo wrote:

Yes, the Lego Movie was a great movie. I remember seeing it when it came out. There was a couple of themes I could grasp from my age at the time- teamwork, being unique, originality, knowing that there's a positive outcome to a situation.

You may well enjoy it a great deal when you're a bit older too.

I watched The Lego Movie and Wreck it Ralph 3 years ago. I had no idea of plot elements or anything. Now I have the ability to go beyond the basics and analyze the movie on a deeper level. Keep in mind that not all children my age are only going to get the basics of plot out of a movie or a story.

Flamekebab wrote:

Pturretdactyl wrote:

Alright, so what about family animation and other media that tries to be meaningful or relate to its target audience? Let's ignore the money aspect for a second- I guess my question is what makes it work really well and what makes it really cringe-worthy?

Now there's a fun question. For me at least I enjoy animation that has enough self-awareness to not be utterly blind to the fact that it's not just children watching. The LEGO Movie was an excellent example of this - it had some simplistic things that I imagine would appeal to many children (a chosen-one hero, some slapstick comedy, some exciting confrontations) but it also had elements dealing with corporate dominance, group identity, and ultimately perspective.

On the other hand the missus and I tried to watch Frozen and switched it off after perhaps twenty minutes. We couldn't see the appeal at all. The setting was relatively generic, the characters (at that point) lacked nuance, and the music didn't compare favourably to the Disney films we'd grown up with.

We made it all the way through Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs but honestly we weren't watching intently. It lost us and ended up as the film on in the background. It too seemed rather flat and lifeless compared with, say, Up. There's a film that impressed me - it managed joyful adventure as well as ponderings on mortality, obligation, and personal discovery.

I loved Lego Movie, but some aspects of it bothered me. For instance, I think Emmet needed a friend more than anything, not a girlfriend. Anyway, while it was cheesey at times, the cheesey bits somehow seemed to fit just by the way the movie was set up. What I REALLY liked about it is that the protagonist was an average person- he wasn't an outcast everybody hated, he didn't have a horrible past, etc. Nobody disliked him in his life, really, he faded into the background. I think that the main message was that ANYONE can be great- you don't have to be a born Master Builder- and it wasn't terribly obvious. Overall, I think the movie's strengths outweighed its weaknesses.

I never did see Frozen or Up, but I can agree with you on Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. It felt a bit cliche, with a protagonist that nobody particularly likes, he finds a love interest, there's a big problem, they solve it, and in the middle of all this is an island where food rains on it, identity issues, conflicting family interests, a monkey and some humor that wasn't all that engaging. It wasn't an awful movie, but it wasn't one that I would go to the library and take it out to watch it again. The message in it- be yourself- was also cliche; not the message itself, but the execution. As you said, nothing wrong with it in principle, but it wasn't deep enough within the plot to be found all that meaningful. It was more of an in your face, ‘Kids, this is what I want you to take from this!’ sort of approach, which for me, makes me cringe a bit.

raspykoo wrote:

Keep in mind that not all children my age are only going to get the basics of plot out of a movie or a story.

Important note - at no point have I said that all children are the same or will appreciate a film in the same way. Earlier I referred to “many children” as I too was a kid once and hated those blanket statements that treated us like we were all the same.

Pturretdactyl wrote:

I loved Lego Movie, but some aspects of it bothered me. For instance, I think Emmet needed a friend more than anything, not a girlfriend.

In a healthy relationship a girlfriend is a friend. Don't worry - plenty of adults make this mistake as well. The best relationships I've had have been ones where we were friends first before becoming romantically involved.

Pturretdactyl wrote:

but I can agree with you on Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. It felt a bit cliche, with a protagonist that nobody particularly likes, he finds a love interest, there's a big problem, they solve it, and in the middle of all this is an island where food rains on it, identity issues, conflicting family interests, a monkey and some humor that wasn't all that engaging. It wasn't an awful movie, but it wasn't one that I would go to the library and take it out to watch it again. The message in it- be yourself- was also cliche; not the message itself, but the execution. As you said, nothing wrong with it in principle, but it wasn't deep enough within the plot to be found all that meaningful. It was more of an in your face, ‘Kids, this is what I want you to take from this!’ sort of approach, which for me, makes me cringe a bit.

I think the thing that really aggravated me about Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs was the way the food was portrayed. This isn't a matter of “this film teaches children the wrong thing!” but more of a broader cultural thing. When I think of a fictional machine that makes food I'd think of it producing recognisable ingredients rather than fully-formed finished fast food. Something about that oversimplification felt insulting and I imagine as a child I would have felt the same.

Side note: cliché is the noun (“An old cliché”) - “clichéd” is the adjective you're looking for (“A clichéd premise”).

Okay, so I think you guys have heard of Moana, the new Princess movie coming out this year. Based on what's been revealed so far, do you think it will be good? Do you think it will be the next frozen? Is it going to be more celebrated than Zootopia or less?

Also, on the topic of upcoming films, what do you think Kubo will be like so far?

Flamekebab wrote:

I think the thing that really aggravated me about Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs was the way the food was portrayed. This isn't a matter of “this film teaches children the wrong thing!” but more of a broader cultural thing. When I think of a fictional machine that makes food I'd think of it producing recognisable ingredients rather than fully-formed finished fast food. Something about that oversimplification felt insulting and I imagine as a child I would have felt the same.

Side note: cliché is the noun (“An old cliché”) - “clichéd” is the adjective you're looking for (“A clichéd premise”).

I think it tried to gloss over that fact in the explanation on how the machine worked, but what bothers me most is that (if I remember correctly; it's been a couple years since I saw it last) it tried to say that these foods were created from water. I really don't like it when the people who create these shows/scripts/etc. try to hide these inconsistencies behind ‘technobabble’ or whatever hoping that it goes over everybody's heads. If I can immediately poke a hole in an explanation like the food machine, then my enjoyment goes waaaay down. If it's actually an explanation that was thought out to be potentially plausible, that's a different story (so like in classic science fiction). Then there's the explanation along the lines of ‘This AI is so advanced now that nobody can fully comprehend it’, which isn't great but is certainly less insulting than the completely nonsensical version.

Also, thank you for the proper use of cliché; I'm slightly embarrassed now and hopefully I won't make that mistake again…

cs156175 wrote:

Okay, so I think you guys have heard of Moana, the new Princess movie coming out this year. Based on what's been revealed so far, do you think it will be good? Do you think it will be the next frozen? Is it going to be more celebrated than Zootopia or less?

Also, on the topic of upcoming films, what do you think Kubo will be like so far?

Is Moana going to be Disney? And from what I've seen of the commercials (I actually don't watch movies that much), Kubo looks promising; the animation style certainly got my attention.

Pturretdactyl wrote:

cs156175 wrote:

Okay, so I think you guys have heard of Moana, the new Princess movie coming out this year. Based on what's been revealed so far, do you think it will be good? Do you think it will be the next frozen? Is it going to be more celebrated than Zootopia or less?

Also, on the topic of upcoming films, what do you think Kubo will be like so far?

Is Moana going to be Disney? And from what I've seen of the commercials (I actually don't watch movies that much), Kubo looks promising; the animation style certainly got my attention.

1: Yup, it is disney. Look it up I guess, the characters have something to do with Samoan myth apparently.
2: Yes, it's stylized. i don't know if i'll like it, i guess we'll see

I enjoy them as much as other films.

I really like animated movies. C'mon, they're not only for kids, but for everyone in the family.

About the Angry Birds Movie, it's very good with the humor and animation, however the adult humor was kinda edgy (for example, the Mighty Eatle urinates with Red, Chuck, and Bomb watching him).

The Incredibles and Fantastic Mr Fox are two of my favorite films of all time and have been for years. I've rewatched them many times over the years and I never get tired of them.
Other family films that I really like:
Finding Nemo
Spirited Away
Ratatouiie
WALL-E
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Castle In The Sky
Nausicaa of The Valley of The Wind
Zootopia
Inside Out
Hunt for The Wilderpeople
Monsters Inc
The Lego Movie
Moonrise Kingdom (debatable)
Coraline
Toy Story
Up
The Iron Giant
My Neighbor Totoro
Toy Story 2
Ponyo

Flamekebab wrote:

raspykoo wrote:

Keep in mind that not all children my age are only going to get the basics of plot out of a movie or a story.

Important note - at no point have I said that all children are the same or will appreciate a film in the same way. Earlier I referred to “many children” as I too was a kid once and hated those blanket statements that treated us like we were all the same.

No, but with this:

You may well enjoy it a great deal when you're a bit older too.

You were concluding that children my age couldn't get all of the messages in the movie Again, I watched some of these movies a couple of years ago so I have a different take on them because I haven't seen them recently.

PrincessPanda_test_ wrote:

however the adult humor was kinda edgy (for example, the Mighty Eatle urinates with Red, Chuck, and Bomb watching him).

I wouldn't really call that “adult” humor, since you see that humor all of the time in kid's TV shows actually.. Sanjay and Craig *Shivers*

raspykoo wrote:

Flamekebab wrote:

raspykoo wrote:

Keep in mind that not all children my age are only going to get the basics of plot out of a movie or a story.

Important note - at no point have I said that all children are the same or will appreciate a film in the same way. Earlier I referred to “many children” as I too was a kid once and hated those blanket statements that treated us like we were all the same.

No, but with this:

You may well enjoy it a great deal when you're a bit older too.

You were concluding that children my age couldn't get all of the messages in the movie Again, I watched some of these movies a couple of years ago so I have a different take on them because I haven't seen them recently.

I think he was just trying to say that you may not ‘outgrow’ it.

Pturretdactyl wrote:

raspykoo wrote:

Flamekebab wrote:

raspykoo wrote:

Keep in mind that not all children my age are only going to get the basics of plot out of a movie or a story.

Important note - at no point have I said that all children are the same or will appreciate a film in the same way. Earlier I referred to “many children” as I too was a kid once and hated those blanket statements that treated us like we were all the same.

No, but with this:

You may well enjoy it a great deal when you're a bit older too.

You were concluding that children my age couldn't get all of the messages in the movie Again, I watched some of these movies a couple of years ago so I have a different take on them because I haven't seen them recently.

I think he was just trying to say that you may not ‘outgrow’ it.

Oh, okay.