Interesting NY Times article on this years glut of CGI movies

No amount of pretty art and animation will mask a poorly done story. None. That is why these fail, not because they are baked by Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks, but because they don't tell stories well. They are also mismarketed and all too similar.

I love animation, both CG and traditional, however I like it all the more when a good storyline is with it. It certainly makes the movie all the more enjoyable. The most recent CG movie that I saw and enjoyed was Monster House.

I want to see more variety in animation which means no talking animals, no singing and maybe even some storylines that don't placate the masses. I yearn for another Iron Giant, one of the last few traditional animated masterpieces out there which was well done.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by SCHNEE-1

I'm going to talk about CG in otherwise live-action movies.

Maybe I'm just a child of the 90's, but I'll always appreciate good costuming, miniatures, and puppets much more than any CG. It doesn't make the movie any more realistic, and it's painfully obvious that it takes no creativity whatsoever on the director's part to throw it together.

Just go watch something like Labyrinth, and compare it to any recent fantasy movie, and tell me which one took more effort and creative thinking.

I'll have to disagree with you there. It takes just as much creativity and effort to create CG effects as it does to create puppets, costumes and miniatures. Ok maybe not as much effort for puppets to CG, but it's still a great deal of work.

With CG you get a great advantage of having a wide range of motion for the characters and even creating epic battle sequences. Lord of the Rings would not be possible on the scale it did without CG. There are times when CG seems to be overused, but if you watch a movie and say there's no CG only to find out that there was, then that's the greatest compliment you can give to the production company.

I think you're just more into nostalgia than anything. Of course I personally did not like the Labyrinth one bit.

There's nowhere I can't reach.