Some good things in the Horton Trailer

Holy cow, I didn't realize I'd get so many comments just about a post I threw together. I was a bit worn out from preparing the college post and that got hardly any comments, so I threw up a picture of Horton and didn't think much about it and got deluged! Now I feel guilty. I looked at the trailer and the first thing I saw was all the modern 'tude and Cal Artsy acting and self-analyzing character story stuff.

But then I noticed there were some pretty good things in there, so I thought I better mention them.

http://www.hortonmovie.com/site/horton.html



The Non Cal Arts Expressions Look Great

A lot of them are buried in fast inbetweens though. And I'm curious as to why they are blurred. It'd be great if you could actually see this stuff.
I like how the eyes are sunk into the skin of his eyelids here. I wish we could see it better.
After the blurry stuff stops, he goes back into the Cal Arts business.

Here's some very clever stuff...
I'd rather it wasn't blurred though.
These hands are great!

The Textures Are More Subtle Than Usual

The fur looks more cartoony or toylike than what you usually see in CG films. They aren't putting realistic hairs and pores on cartoon bodies - which makes most cg characters look like deformed mutant humans.

These characters look like Seuss characters - at least when they aren't making Disney expressions and that in itself is a huge advance in modern cartoon design.

The Colors Are Not Obnoxious

They seem to be doing natural colors and not trying to punish our eyes with typical cartoon colors.

It doesn't really look like Seuss BGs and the colors are conservative, but it's a huge relief from what we are used to in cartoons:

I hope there is at least one sequence that is rendered in the style of my favorite Seuss book:
Maybe the Blue Sky artists are slowly pushing back against the forces of Hollywood/Disney formula. This definitely looks better than most feature cartoons. It's at least cartoony underneath the expressions and in a few short bits. Maybe there is more of that in the film.

I wish they could just go ahead and do some shorts using the Seuss stories as is, and not have to fill them up with Hollywood sappy story stuff and characters who have to examine their inner selves and learn that it's ok to be yourself. Just tell the stories and use the original poetry and get good character actors with fun voices to narrate.
Come up with a animation style that is as silly and cartoony as the drawings. Seuss is pure silly fantasy. It's not supposed to have fake heart or be believable. It's supposed to be funny and clever and imaginative. An escape from the mundane.

That'd make a great DVD.

_________________________

A note on individual interpretations of classics:

I'm actually all for individual creative additions to classic properties, as long as they don't completely undermine the essence of the material. Unless they are satires, of course. (Good ones). It's like covering a standard pop song.

Clampett and Jones both did their own interpretations of Seuss and Horton and you can sure tell the difference between them. I think Clampett did the better version and closer to the source, but that's just my opinion. The Grinch has a lot of good things in it. Both directors obviously have great respect and admiration for Seuss, but are also very strong stylists themselves and couldn't possibly help adding their own personalities to the cartoons. I wouldn't want them to just take Seuss' drawings and inbetween them.

That's not the same thing as a corporate whitewashing of a classic. My complaint is that the same bland formulaic makeover is applied to everything today. There's no sign of anyone's individuality anywhere. It's like there is only one animation creator and he makes every frame of every film. The same expressions, same acting, same contrived story gimmicks are just pasted over any subject matter.

There are lots of truly creative people in the business that could do marvelously entertaining, exciting and popular cartoons if only we could discard the corporate formula veneer that smothers every attempt to be sincere and creative.

Dr. Seuss Gets 'Tude. Big Budgets for Small Budget Thinking

Remember how much you loved this as a kid?

Well Hollywood has improved it.

HORTON HEARS A 'HO

I've always wondered why people in charge of animated projects like to take classic properties that completely stood on their own because of their inherent uniqueness and appeal and then change them into the same thing as every other cartoon.

At one time this kind of thinking was relegated to low budget bargain basement Saturday Morning cartoons. It seemed outrageous to anyone with taste or respect for creativity way back in the 70s and 80s, but you could use the excuse that it's low budget and therefore trash by definition, and trash doesn't deserve original or creative ideas.

Now Hollywood will invest huge fortunes on low-budget trashy 80s Saturday Morning type thinking. "Let's take a highly beloved classic character and 'tude him up!"

Cal Arts does Seuss

Kali and I went and saw Beowulf the other day, and besides the obvious outrages of the movie itself the theatre walls were littered with the movie posters of what else was going on in big-budget Hollywood. It was like looking at the Saturday Morning Cartoon lineup from 1985. Almost every poster advertised the types of ideas that 12 year olds come up with in the schoolyard at recess. I see this and wonder why ideas that anyone on earth could come up with deserve such vast amounts of money to produce. Couldn't a computer program generate the stories and concepts a lot cheaper than a bunch of Hollywood execs and writers?

The posters boasted something about people who ride the Coca Cola polar bears in the mountains. Hip Hop Chipmunks (with hairy human noses). Dr. Seuss who were designed somewhat like the originals, but standing around in poses and expressions from modern Cal Arts feature animation. The same expressions that are in every single animated feature made in the last 30 years. If you're gonna take Dr. Seuss characters, why not take the expressions and ideas along with them? That would be so refreshing to see something different. Why turn it into what we already have too much of? And why spend so much money on it?

Bad ideas don't deserve big money. I would think some smart executive somewhere would say we can do bad for a lot cheaper than the rest of Hollywood and therefore make more money back per dollar spent.

I wonder how much is spent on the scripts for ideas that anyone on the planet could come up with.

I really want to know how much they spend on movie poster bylines. "Honey just got funny". I hope they spend a lot on that department. Is there market research to demonstrate that having an awkward pun under the title brings in more profits?
How many car accidents has this billboard byline caused?

A comment worth answering:

Wes: How do you know the style of animation in this movie? Have you seen it? How can you judge a body of work from a poster that was more and likely done by a marketing team instead of the artist at the studio? You know as well as most people that even trailers are usually unfinished shots or shots cut from the movie. I do agree with some of what you say, but as far as people judging something before it's seen is really too bad, you might miss something great. Surf's Up was a great movie and Beautifully animated, but people judged it because of the characters and the movie failed. Don't judge a book by it's cover just because if it's bad you can say you were right....

http://movies.aol.com/movie/horton-hears-a-who/24695/main

These animators are obviously very talented, but the whole concept is playing against Dr. Seuss. It's acted and directed like a Pixar film,



rather than tailored to Seuss. I'm sure these artists could do a great movie, with some direction and an idea with more conviction. Technically, it's ready to go.Whoever animated this is pretty damn creative. The last scene in the trailer looks more custom than the first scene of this character. The first one looks Cal Arts. Anyone know why the 2 are different?



Do you like the normal sounding voices?

I think animators really would benefit from strong more distinct voices. When you have normal voices, then the broad animation actions don't seem to fit. To me, anyway. I'd like to see this animator do something to Mel Blanc or someone with real power and conviction in the acting. Good dialogue would help too.

How "COOL" ruined everything pt 1 -Actual Cool

Cool works very rarely and in not many fields of entertainment.

It sometimes works in music. Here's the inventor of cool.


Elvis is naturally "cool", but he is not merely cool.
He earned the right to his 'tude by having extreme talent and skill and charisma. He has a really wide range of musical influences and styles. He invented all kinds of new ways to sing, not just "cool" ones.

He doesn't only shade his eyes. He has a million expressions and emotions. Cool is just one of them. Watch and see!










Robert Mitchum was cool before they started using the word to describe guys like this.
Again-he's not merely cool. You don't get the right be cool by just keeping your eyes half closed and having no respect for authority. You have to have amazing attributes to begin with.
Robert Mitchum is suave. He has an amazingly deep charismatic voice. He is weird looking and handsome at the same time.
He's rugged and manly. He can act. He can kick your ass.


Nowadays, everyone wants to be cool, but they don't think they need anything to back it up.

Even back in Elvis and Bob's time, not all amazing people were "cool". That is another attribute added on top of the rest of their talents.

There were lots of great musicians that were not what you would think of as cool. Same with actors.

Entertainment needs a wide range of character and styles. If everyone tries to be cool, there is no variety or contrast.

I have a theory that everyone who followed Elvis, up until this day wanted to be cool,so bad, that they gave up all other pursuits, just to cultivate an instant image and quick reward.

That's how we have music with no melody that has only one emotion-anger.
Or we have dark, ugly movies that are way too serious.

The worst medium to try to be "cool" in is cartoons. Cartoonists are among the nerdiest folks on the planet, and we are supposed to be the most honest and observant of the wide variety of human types.

"Tude" is the poor man's cool. It's the executive version of Elvis. As if you can just strike a rebellious pose and automatically earn the right to be thought of as someone who goes against the corporate herd. I think it's the opposite of actual cool.

When we try to be "cool" we abandon all our natural powers of observation, variety and strong humor-humor that makes you laugh out loud, rather than humor that makes you feel like you're part of the cool group.

Many cartoonists think being able to draw well is corny, in the same way that music with melodies or happy melodies is corny.

"That's my style" is an admission of wanting to be cool, instead of wanting to be able to draw a wide variety of characters and shapes and expressions, etc...

There are lots of emotions and moods that could be conveyed in every art, especially cartoons. We can heighten the range and emotions better than any other medium-as long as we don't wear blinders and filter our drawings through what we think is a cool "style".

When I search around Deviant Art or even some of my commenters' blogs I see lots of potentially talented young cartoonists trying too hard to be cool-drawing cool humans wearing baggy pants. Kind of Jamie Hewlett mixed with anime. There are tons of drawings by different artists, yet you would think it's all the same artist.



As if you can just copy the expressions and a couple angular shapes from Gorillaz and presto! You are as talented as Jamie Hewlett. Jamie can actually draw like a sonovabitch and it's his personal style. If you wanna be like Hewlett, learn to draw for real, like he did and make up your own style. If you are not actually cool, you don't have to draw cool. Draw funny if you're funny. Draw cute, or better yet draw many types of characters. Look at the world around you and many different cartoon styles and use your eyes and your knowledge to mix up the most interesting things you see.

Now think about it-how many people would want to watch cartoons with your cool characters in them? How entertaining is a cool cartoon? Why would they pick your cool human characters over the other million cool cartoonists' cool dude characters?

This is a very big subject and I would like to discuss it with folks over many posts if anyone's interested or has their own ideas on the subject.

To be continued...

CHIMPTUDE

For all you 'tude lovers

No More 'Tude!

I hereby command that you stop drawing 'tude.

I see you there at your desk. You have a drawing on your board with a character with a sly half closed eyelids sneer looking at the camera.

I caught you. Someone is standing over your shoulder right now watching you and shaking her head with shame.

Why in Hell would anyone draw this expression on a cartoon character? And why on so many characters?

If I see one more animated feature billboard staring down at me with 'tude, I'm gonna become a 'toon terrorist.

What the hell is 'tude anyway? Have you ever actually met anyone in real life who makes this expression?

Would you have anything to do with him if you did?

What if your best friend, someone you have known for a few years, showed up at your house one day and he had 'tude all of a sudden?
Wouldn't you just wanna kick the shit out of him? Would you be seen in public with him?

This is the face you would make if you saw someone on the street with 'tude.You wouldn't walk around town with your willie hanging out of your giant trousers would you? Well, then why would you draw 'tude? It's the same exact thing.


So this is the last day that you are allowed to draw 'tude. From now on, draw real human expressions that are funny and amusing. Your public will thank you.If you have more images of unsightly 'tude, post a link in the comments!

Want a cure for drawing 'tude? Pay attention to the expressions, faces and poses your friends and family make. Caricature them and then draw your cartoon characters making funny and real and specific expressions. You'll feel much better and be able to walk the streets with your head held up.

In the meantime, cleanse your eyes with these joyful pictures:



Thanks to Trevour for this abominable example of 'toon 'tude.