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Mars Needs Moms
- Thread starter Disney
- Start date
I couldn't tell what Mars Needs Moms was supposed to be, I've seen commercials on TV, but it starts out like a movie trailer, then it turns into a car commercial, then back to being a movie trailer, so I have no idea.
frogboy4
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I may have started a thread about this picture a while back, but due to the tone I don't blame you for creating a new one.
Sorry, I usually like quality animated films - from Pixar pictures to classically animated ones that come out in rare drips and drabs like "The Illusionist". "Mars Needs Moms" just looks icky to me. It's that motion capture zombiness that just doesn't look right and causes a mental disconnect. My guess is that this was likely put into production before the technology was refined by Cameron's Avatar team and we do know that ImageMovers is no more after their last few misfires. I'll usually see almost anything, but I'll only see it if enough esteemed critics give it high marks. "Monster House" was enjoyable so there is a chance this could be too.
Even so, I'm much more interested in "Rango" that chose to record the actors' movements and let animators interpret them rather than allowing a bunch of strategically placed ping-pong balls do the heavy lifting. That's how Disney used to do it with traditional animation and it's good to see somebody's getting back to that time-tested method in the CG world.
Sorry, I usually like quality animated films - from Pixar pictures to classically animated ones that come out in rare drips and drabs like "The Illusionist". "Mars Needs Moms" just looks icky to me. It's that motion capture zombiness that just doesn't look right and causes a mental disconnect. My guess is that this was likely put into production before the technology was refined by Cameron's Avatar team and we do know that ImageMovers is no more after their last few misfires. I'll usually see almost anything, but I'll only see it if enough esteemed critics give it high marks. "Monster House" was enjoyable so there is a chance this could be too.
Even so, I'm much more interested in "Rango" that chose to record the actors' movements and let animators interpret them rather than allowing a bunch of strategically placed ping-pong balls do the heavy lifting. That's how Disney used to do it with traditional animation and it's good to see somebody's getting back to that time-tested method in the CG world.
Okay... apparently, the book DID sorta look like this... but how COOL would it be if the movie had characters that looked sort of like this.
All and all, I completely agree. Imagemovers, I'm sorry for the jobless animators and I hate to see more people out of work, but maybe it's good that it's gone. The Polar Express is one of the ugliest movies I've seen, and I'm glad I only saw it on television for 10 minutes (all I could take), and I had absolutely no desire to see Christmas Carol either.
And the dialogue in the movie from what I saw in the previews is a real turn off "I know karate... at least on my Wii" TM. Yeah, I think I've seen too many films like that.
Agreed on Rango. There's just some magic kind of weirdness with that film that makes me wish it was March 4th already. Sigh... makes me wish the movie in question was animated out of the blue instead of motion capture.
All and all, I completely agree. Imagemovers, I'm sorry for the jobless animators and I hate to see more people out of work, but maybe it's good that it's gone. The Polar Express is one of the ugliest movies I've seen, and I'm glad I only saw it on television for 10 minutes (all I could take), and I had absolutely no desire to see Christmas Carol either.
And the dialogue in the movie from what I saw in the previews is a real turn off "I know karate... at least on my Wii" TM. Yeah, I think I've seen too many films like that.
Agreed on Rango. There's just some magic kind of weirdness with that film that makes me wish it was March 4th already. Sigh... makes me wish the movie in question was animated out of the blue instead of motion capture.
I will reserve judgment until I actually see the movie.
The animation in question...well, I never liked the "lets make a digital human as realistic as possible" approach. Theres just something about it that creeps me out. I dont like it in any medium...movies, video games, action figures, whatever.
The animation in question...well, I never liked the "lets make a digital human as realistic as possible" approach. Theres just something about it that creeps me out. I dont like it in any medium...movies, video games, action figures, whatever.
Have you guys seen the concept art for the film? It's pretty cool to see how something goes from its initial stage to the final product.
frogboy4
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Why Disney's 'Mars Needs Moms' Bombed - the Hollywood Reporter hits the nail on the head:
"How do you throw a party and no one comes? This is outright rejection," one veteran studio distribution chief says.
Mars faced several obstacles, according to box office observers. For one, moviegoers don't seem to like the motion-capture technology. Other times, it can work, such as in Avatar.
"The movie [Mars] looked downright creepy," one observer notes.
Due to terrible box office performance, Disney has now nixed Zemekis' needless mocap remake of the Beatles "Yellow Submarine". He'll probably try to shop it to other studios or he'll get to work trying to destroy the image of Roger Rabbit with a mocap sequel. How many times must a director be convinced that his method just isn't working? These aren't shoestring budgeted pictures. I've got to be honest, aside from "Back to the Future", the cheeky "Romancing the Stone" and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" the rest of Zemekis' films have been rather empty IMHO. Yeah, I'm one of the few who didn't like "Forest Gump", but even so...that was his last solid hit!
Anyway, I'm just glad that others seem to agree that his mocap technology is creepy and doesn't work. James Cameron's team perfected the technology and implemented it correctly. He's trying to invent the wheel - again. And with lack-luster results. What's the point?
Other than that, the trailers I've seen offered the same sort of lousy pop culturey, snappy one liners. "I Know Karate... at least on the Wii TM!" "I want one of these for Christmas"... stuff like that. I'm sure most of the dialogue would be similar.
I don't know why anyone insists on making movies based off of kid's picture books. Sure, Shrek was a surprise hit... but it completely deviated from the story and became something else. So far it hasn't worked on anything else (barely with Jumanji), and we end up with crap like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs that try to fill in gaps that didn't need to be filled, and to explain things that need not have been explained.
And YES... the Zermeckis motion capture dealy IS junk. Polar Express looked like corpses, Christmas Carol looked like shiny corpses, Monster House looked alright, but a little muddy... this looks like corpses again. Other than the uncanny valley of human looking CGI humans (Pixar struck a good balance since Toy Story 2, but didn't drastically stylize anything until Incredibles... now half of everything has that look), just... the stiffness... they might as well made the film entirely in live action anyway. It would be a shame if Zermeckis brings this back only to make a pale Roger Rabbit sequel (Disney should force him to go back to the cel animated look with their share in the character). Just like how the Farley brothers keep threatening to make a Three Stooges movie, I hope either never happen.
I don't know why anyone insists on making movies based off of kid's picture books. Sure, Shrek was a surprise hit... but it completely deviated from the story and became something else. So far it hasn't worked on anything else (barely with Jumanji), and we end up with crap like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs that try to fill in gaps that didn't need to be filled, and to explain things that need not have been explained.
And YES... the Zermeckis motion capture dealy IS junk. Polar Express looked like corpses, Christmas Carol looked like shiny corpses, Monster House looked alright, but a little muddy... this looks like corpses again. Other than the uncanny valley of human looking CGI humans (Pixar struck a good balance since Toy Story 2, but didn't drastically stylize anything until Incredibles... now half of everything has that look), just... the stiffness... they might as well made the film entirely in live action anyway. It would be a shame if Zermeckis brings this back only to make a pale Roger Rabbit sequel (Disney should force him to go back to the cel animated look with their share in the character). Just like how the Farley brothers keep threatening to make a Three Stooges movie, I hope either never happen.