I flitted through some MSM stories and reviews about Fox's new animated feature Ice Age 3. Not pretty.
Lazy, transparent, disposable and at its worst, boring, Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs is a sometimes beautiful piece of animation consistently ruined by unfocused directing, bizarre editing choices, phoned-in voice acting, and a script which is neither witty nor filled with momentum. Of course it’s in 3D too because the extra dimension, like everything else in the prehistoric troposphere, is yet another apparatus for the film to hastily implement without foresight, planning or success. I guess the first question which comes to mind is why bother? Why bother even finishing a film all involved were clearly so ambivalent about? ...
There are so many things going on in "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs," ... why does the third installment of this animated tale often feel so glacial? ...
Even the gray lady, even while sprinkling a few compliments, gives the feature the back of its gloved hand.
A collection of short Scrat films would be much more pleasing than the elephantine “Ice Age” series ...
Owwy yeowy.
Me? I liked the first Ice Age and thought the second one told its story well. (The third one I have not seen.) But I think that the negative reviews -- and they are far from being all negative -- will have minimal impact on worldwide grosses. The earlier films did robust numbers in all corners of the globe, and by now Ice Age is a brand name.
This third incarnation is going to make Fox lots of money.
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22 comments:
And yet, I reeeeeally don't give a flying rats ass if it makes a lot of money.
I hope it doesn't.
There: I said it. I hope it bombs. Why? Because it would be nice if the process/and or people who are responsible for squandering the hard work of all of those artists on lame lowest common denominator jokes and retarded storylines get scuttled and aren't used again.
I'm tired of the philosophy that animated filmss simply need to make money. If they are good, they will make money. Its a simple equation. So I hope they are good.
The MSM response is the complete opposite of Roger Ebert who not only called Ice Age 3 the best of the series but also said it used 3D well (while still hating on the technology).
MSM... hmmm... wonder what that stands for. Could it be MethylSulfonylMethane? Supposed to be good for arthritis pain. Wikipedia says MSM stands for mainstream media. Maybe it's the Morehouse School of Medicine? The Manhattan School of Music? The Maastricht School of Management? Maybe Mason Selkowitz Marketing in Rochester, NY? There's the Mechanically Separated Meat blog. I guess any one of those would do. That's what I like most about these posts - I get to learn so much from Wikipedia about things totally unrelated to animation. I even learned the The Grey Lady is a nickname for The New York Times. Wow!
Hyper Sensitive liberal alert!!
I saw Ice Age 3 and let me tell ya its WAY better than 1 and 2. Im actully SHOCKED by the super negative criticisms. I wonder if the critics are still riding the Transformers 2 negativity wave or something.
I guessed it would have come in somewhere around a 73-75%. But 36% or whatever? No way! Even the abysmal Shrek 3 got a 41. Ice Age 3 is nearly twice as good as that piece of crap.
Now regarding "sequelitis," I agree. Id like to see artists working on new and fun properties all the time. But there also seems to be a double standard when it comes to Pixar though. No ones complaining Toy Story 3 is coming out.
i hope the N.Y. animators have another hit on their hands. They just moved into a new big studio up there.
CT animators ;)
No double standard here. Everyone knows Toy Story 3 and Cars 2 are money grabber. No one defends them, and many already anticipate something average. But what can you do about it? It's life and yeah, cartoons have to make money.
IA3 will no doubt brings a lot of money in for Fox, they need it because their live actions suck. At least until Avatar.
MSM... hmmm... wonder what that stands for. Could it be MethylSulfonylMethane? Supposed to be good for arthritis pain. Wikipedia says MSM stands for mainstream media. Maybe it's the Morehouse School of Medicine? The Manhattan School of Music? The Maastricht School of Management? Maybe Mason Selkowitz Marketing in Rochester, NY? There's the Mechanically Separated Meat blog. I guess any one of those would do. That's what I like most about these posts - I get to learn so much from Wikipedia about things totally unrelated to animation. I even learned the The Grey Lady is a nickname for The New York Times. Wow!!
Don't quit your day job. Humor is hard.
"Even the abysmal Shrek 3 got a 41. Ice Age 3 is nearly twice as good as that piece of crap."
The corollary, of course, is that it's nearly half as crappy...
Ice Age 3 has the dubious honor of having its commercial feature the most groan inducing joke I have seen in an animated film in years.
An animal holding a rock to his ear as a cell phone???
Are you kidding me? If you are a writer and you need current cultural references to come up with comedy in a movie with dinosaurs and wooly mammoths in a jungle, then quit your job. Pursue something more aligned with your intelligence- like sanitation or something like that.
That was the most talentless, hack, joke in recent memory. I wouldn't even expect to see it in a Martin Lawrence script.
An animal holding a rock to his ear as a cell phone???
Sounds like the rock/animal "technology" gags in The Flintstones.
I can sit through any number of bad one-offs if I'm lost in the story and I like the characters.
"An animal holding a rock to his ear as a cell phone???"
Hey dummy. He was doing it because Buck's CRAZY. He wasnt talking to ANYONE: hes been alone in a lost world for years so hes gone half nuts.
Congratulations, you missed the joke, which, by the way, was pretty funny
I don't know why anyone is surprised here.
Blue Sky has become synonymous with technically sound and polished animation...and suck ass gag driven storytelling.
Even with a horrible story, this film will do well because the average audience member cares little about good storytelling.
This continued financial success will once again convince the studio executives that they know what they are doing and greenlight another suck ass story.
This will allow Blue Sky to start making the film, get behind in the story phase, get behind in shot production, have a massive staff up, crunch the hell out of them while doing enough footage for 2 films, and then just barely finish on time.
The story sucks, the animation looks cool, the film gets horrible reviews, the audience flocks to the theaters, and Fox rakes in the cash...
Rinse and repeat.
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what he said.
wow. a lot of venom towards Ice Age. Jeez.
To the 5:34 Anonymous:
Wow. You've worked at Blue Sky before.
Theres a terrible attrition rate (at least in the animation department, perhaps others) at Blue Sky. Because everyone is really good, they do a couple films, get fed up with their talent being wasted on terrible stories, and leave.
I wonder if Rio (their next film) will be the same. At least it sounds original.
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Congratulations, you missed the joke, which, by the way, was pretty funny"
I got the joke. Now you should get a brain. It isn't funny unless your idea of a quality movie is Bad Boys2 and your favorite comedian is Dane Cook.
Congratulations, you just revealed yourself as a mouth breathing dunce to everyone. Now go back to your Archie comic books.
I agree, SO much venom! You people must be VERY disgruntled. Im embarrassed to call myself an animator if it means Im associated with some of you.
I thought the rock gag was funny. Wasnt like it was a central plot point or something, just a cute funny part.
Ice Age 3 was on par or better than Ice Age 2. I don't get the harsh slamming of this either. I think the public will appreciate this movie much more than the critics.
But there also seems to be a double standard when it comes to Pixar though. No ones complaining Toy Story 3 is coming out.
Actually if you look at the Pixar boards, you'll see that the Pixar fans probably are complaining more at the sequelitis than the regular folk. A lot of moaning and groaning from their end when Monsters Inc 2 was announced as a possibility.
In political talk - Pixar probably shouldn't get their base all riled up with this sequel business.
"That was the most talentless, hack, joke in recent memory. I wouldn't even expect to see it in a Martin Lawrence script."
Apparently you didn't see Monsters vs Aliens yet. If you did, you'd remember the stinker of a reference to An Inconvenient Truth by Bob. No laughs in the theater on that one, only groans on how far of a reach is was.
At least the cellphone/rock gag was an attempt at a character-driven joke and not just a situational sight gag.
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