Personally, I think the current ad campaign for the film is only outdone by that ugly clip of Robin Williams as a creepy CGI penguin singing "My Way" for the film "Happy Feet".
Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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I think this film almost universally inspires the response "Didn't we already see this last year and wasn't it called Madagascar?"
Now, we can assume it is significantly different to at least have avoided copyright infringement, but the similarities are so glaring I doubt any critic would miss pointing them out.
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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I enjoyed Madagascar quite a bit, and the animators who worked on it rock, but unfortunately this seems to be another case of Dreamworks mysteriously producing a nearly identical film and getting it to theaters first. The company that worked on The Wild, CORE, was in pre-production on this film long before Dreamworks started on Madagascar... CORE just took a heck of a long time to make it. And, from the looks of it, still didn't spend enough time on character design or story development.
However, it looks like the "zoo animals returning to the wild" story was theirs first, so they shouldn't get any crap about that. At least. Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
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True enough! I'm just on a little personal quest to try to convince folks that, while there may be many issues with this film, "ripping off Dreamworks" isn't' one of them. Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
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It's not necessarily a crippling situation. Antz came first, but Bug's Life was so much better that it wasn't hurt at all by the comparison.
Coming after doesn't hurt. Being lame doesn't necessarily hurt. Coming after and being lame -- that an unforgivable sin.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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It must be bad if they aren't showing it to critics. The only films that usually do that are really bad horror films and teen comedies.
Posts: 555 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Good grief. There ain't but barely such a thing as a Hollywood storyline that hasn't been "in production" for years and years and years; usually many many versions at many different studios both major and minor. It's just that when one major finally greenlights shooting the storyline by contracting an expensive cast&crew, other studios' executives finally get the nerve to figure that "it must be worth the financial risk" to film their own similar "in production". Studio execs, like closely-approximating-all execs, are sheep. Only company founders have any real vision&courage, pret' much.
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What's getting me is the fact that there are a ton of these one-note-joke CGI films coming out, with this one, "Over the Hedge," the bear movie with Martin Lawrence (forget the name), the "Bug Killer" film about that kid and ants, that stupid Happy Feet film and probably ten or twenty more.
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I think the last animated films in which the Disney company was at least partially concerned with actual storytelling were "Mulan" and "Tarzan". I consider the former to be a quite a decent movie while the second one doesn't really hold up and is marred by the "cute animal" cliche...but least it tries to tell a story.
"Toy Story 2" was their last good CGI film as well. After that, the concepts just kept getting lamer and lamer. When I happen to catch "The Lion King" or "Mulan" I'm actually riveted to the story on a fundamental level. But with the recent crop of children's animation lately I'm merely aware that I'm watching entertainment for children.
Posts: 722 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Really? Have you seen "Monsters Inc." "Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles"? I thought they had pretty decent stories... Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
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Zeugma, I wasn't really fond of "Finding Nemo" because the story felt a bit familiar...but, I don't really know how I could forget to mention "The Incredibles." I highly enjoyed it, especially the comicbook elements. =)
Posts: 722 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Oh man, if you liked The Incredibles, please tell me you've seen Brad Bird's other feature animation, The Iron Giant! That's one of the greatest animated films of ALL TIME. I get goosebumps just thinking about it. :-D
Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
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