CARTOON MOVIES

I read Andy’s entry for the movie “300” and I couldn’t help but also comment on this movie. I’m familiar with Frank Miller’s work (Sin City), and based on Andy’s comments—and trailers I’ve seen for the movie—I can predict with confidence exactly the type of movie it is.

It disturbs me, because with the advent of CGI (computer-generated image) effects, the movie industry is moving very close to eliminating real sets in their movies. There seem to be more and more movies per year that are, for all intents and purposes, cartoons with human actors. This, for me, ruins all believability in the storyline—even the movie itself.

Has anyone seen “A Scanner Darkly.” If so you know it’s a sci-fi movie that was filmed with real sets and real actors and then changed to a cartoon after-the-fact. That one blew my mind. I was asking myself after I watched it why would any film-maker want to ruin a perfectly good movie by doing this? It took away all the emotion and realism of an otherwise intriguing story and seemingly good acting.

Anyway, I won’t be rushing off to the theater to watch “300”—the cartoon-film with human actors. Maybe Hollywood will grow a brain and realize no one wants to see this crap and that’s why tickets sales dropped off in the past five years. Amazingly, I think it was the top movie for it's opening weekend (which says nothing for a film's longevity), which means people are going to see it, which means as long as people keep going to see these crap movies, Hollywood will keep making them. It's a consumer-perpetuated cycle. I, for one, won't contribute.

HOLLYWOOD: No one wants to see cartoons with human actors. Stop gypping us theater-goers and make real movies, with real sets, real effects—and real actors. Oh yeah, you haven’t eliminated actors yet. Well, before you do, let it be known that we want you to keep those, too.