Mega Mind

Features, Shorts, Live-Action and Direct-To-Video
Post Reply
User avatar
AV Founder
AV Founder
Posts: 25294
Joined: October 22nd, 2004
Location: London, UK

Re: Re:

Post by Ben » September 10th, 2010, 12:29 pm

EricJ wrote:
Ben wrote:Is this DWA's first major flop?
...Have we forgotten Sinbad already? ;)
Funnily enough...starring Brad Pitt! ;)

Yes, I was of course referring to CG features, or even recent DWs outings, or even films released after they became a private animation company away from the original DreamWorks SKG, which would make this their first major flop...if it does indeed flop. But with people already saying "hey it looks entertaining", then at least moderate success is assured, basically going by cheap, by-the-numbers filmmaking pleasing non-demanding, easy-to-satisfy audiences... :roll:

Still...DWs marketing is doing its job: we're all talking about their movie. ;)

AV Forum Member
AV Forum Member
Posts: 347
Joined: May 25th, 2007
Location: Silicon Valley
Contact:

Re: Mega Mind (formerly Oobermind & MasterMind)

Post by Vernadyn » September 10th, 2010, 4:49 pm

I remember seeing an old trailer for the original Planet of the Apes that basically summarized the movie and revealed the final shot. Of course, most people know the ending to that film more than the film itself now, and it doesn't help that some of the DVDs have the "surprise" ending right on the cover.

AV Forum Member
AV Forum Member
Posts: 199
Joined: July 3rd, 2007

Re: Mega Mind (formerly Oobermind & MasterMind)

Post by CGIFanatic » September 10th, 2010, 6:07 pm

It needed some help but DreamWorks has already had its flop and the movie was called "Flushed Away". They spent lots of cash making that movie but the returns domestically was less than 65m.

AV Forum Member
AV Forum Member
Posts: 1210
Joined: July 9th, 2008
Location: Australia

Post by Bill1978 » September 10th, 2010, 6:10 pm

I don't view Flushed Away as a true Dreamworks movie. It's an Aardman film finaced with Dreamworks money. But then I'm a person who doesn't consider Chicken Run or Curse Of The Were-Rabbit as Dreamworks either even though the DVD cover splashes Dreamworks all over the front.

AV Forum Member
AV Forum Member
Posts: 5192
Joined: September 27th, 2007

Re: Mega Mind (formerly Oobermind & MasterMind)

Post by EricJ » September 10th, 2010, 9:59 pm

CGIFanatic wrote:It needed some help but DreamWorks has already had its flop and the movie was called "Flushed Away". They spent lots of cash making that movie but the returns domestically was less than 65m.
Flushed Away was a GOOD movie (ie. an average Aardman, but arguably ahead of "Chicken Run", and even a bad Aardman is miles ahead of DW's best work on their own)--
But it had the misfortune to:
A) open the same week as the Dancing Penguins--and there can only be one family film per fall--while
B) ANY movie's headlines for the month were stolen by a certain obnoxious faux-foreigner opening that same week whose name has since been forgotten by bad sequels
Which caused
C) the usual paranoia that since Flushed had DW's name on it, Jeffrey must've ripped it off from something Pixar...Aha, there's RATS in it! See, see?

(Flushed still has a few mercenary concessions to DW, including the big chase and the karaoke ending...
But those who still call it a DW film, or accuse Aardman of "selling out" because they did CGI to save time, we say "Beware, bewaaaare...." :o )

AV Forum Member
AV Forum Member
Posts: 608
Joined: January 22nd, 2007

Re: Mega Mind (formerly Oobermind & MasterMind)

Post by Whippet Angel » September 10th, 2010, 11:09 pm

EricJ wrote:B) ANY movie's headlines for the month were stolen by a certain obnoxious faux-foreigner opening that same week whose name has since been forgotten by bad sequels
I can't for the life of me figure out what this is..... Unless you're referring to Borat. :P

AV Team
AV Team
Posts: 6634
Joined: February 8th, 2005
Location: The US of A

Re: Mega Mind (formerly Oobermind & MasterMind)

Post by Dacey » September 10th, 2010, 11:16 pm

I'm not sure what he's referring to...but I do know that "Happy Feet" came out two whole weeks after FA did. ;)
"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift--that is why it's called the present."

AV Forum Member
AV Forum Member
Posts: 5192
Joined: September 27th, 2007

Re: Mega Mind (formerly Oobermind & MasterMind)

Post by EricJ » September 11th, 2010, 12:09 am

Whippet Angel wrote:
EricJ wrote:B) ANY movie's headlines for the month were stolen by a certain obnoxious faux-foreigner opening that same week whose name has since been forgotten by bad sequels
I can't for the life of me figure out what this is..... Unless you're referring to Borat. :P
(...Hey, how 'bout that, you remembered the title after all these years! :lol: )

AV Forum Member
AV Forum Member
Posts: 1210
Joined: July 9th, 2008
Location: Australia

Re: Mega Mind (formerly Oobermind & MasterMind)

Post by Bill1978 » September 11th, 2010, 2:53 am

Is Bruno the 'sequel' you are referring to then? What other 'sequels' have their been to Borat.

Forgot to mention in past post that while I feel vindicated about Brad Pitt's character, putting it in the trailer has reduced my need to see the movie by about 95%. Why oh why must trailers tell me everything? Thank God Tangled's current teaser/trailers haven't given anything away.

AV Forum Member
AV Forum Member
Posts: 199
Joined: July 3rd, 2007

Re: Mega Mind (formerly Oobermind & MasterMind)

Post by CGIFanatic » September 11th, 2010, 3:02 am

EricJ wrote:
CGIFanatic wrote:It needed some help but DreamWorks has already had its flop and the movie was called "Flushed Away". They spent lots of cash making that movie but the returns domestically was less than 65m.
Flushed Away was a GOOD movie (ie. an average Aardman, but arguably ahead of "Chicken Run", and even a bad Aardman is miles ahead of DW's best work on their own)--
But it had the misfortune to:
A) open the same week as the Dancing Penguins--and there can only be one family film per fall--while
B) ANY movie's headlines for the month were stolen by a certain obnoxious faux-foreigner opening that same week whose name has since been forgotten by bad sequels
Which caused
C) the usual paranoia that since Flushed had DW's name on it, Jeffrey must've ripped it off from something Pixar...Aha, there's RATS in it! See, see?

(Flushed still has a few mercenary concessions to DW, including the big chase and the karaoke ending...
But those who still call it a DW film, or accuse Aardman of "selling out" because they did CGI to save time, we say "Beware, bewaaaare...." :o )
I stopped reading your comment after the word GOOD.

I'll just say a few more GOOD movies like that and DW would be history now. I'm sure that'd be fine by you but I'd bet there are plenty of animators who are thankful that movies like that aren't made there anymore.

AV Forum Member
AV Forum Member
Posts: 1210
Joined: July 9th, 2008
Location: Australia

Post by Bill1978 » September 11th, 2010, 3:05 am

CGIFanatic, could you please explain why you don't think Flished Away is a good movie and why plenty of animators are grateful movies like that aren't made anymore.

I personally like Flushed Away, find it funny and an enjoyable trip and the best of the 3 Aardman feature films. Just interested in getting an opposite perspective to mine

User avatar
AV Founder
AV Founder
Posts: 25294
Joined: October 22nd, 2004
Location: London, UK

Post by Ben » September 11th, 2010, 9:08 am

Nevermind, guys. As usual, Eric doesn't let a little thing like FACTS get in the way of a bad gripe... :roll:

- Borat never had a sequel. In a way, it was already a sequel, to the earlier TV show. Bruno was another attempt to pull off the same trick, but he was a character already invented before Borat came along.

- As has been said, Flushed Away opened two weeks before Happy Feet, giving DWs more than enough time to find an opening audience (I love how Eric never re-addresses these things when he's found to be wrong, like 99.99% of the time).

- Aardman didn't use CGI "to save time". In fact, they were against the use of CG and were well into prep with this as a traditional stop-motion film. It was only when tests on the water shots proved it would be impossible to animate that amount of water frame by frame that they then looked at stop-motion characters and CG water. When that proved prohibitively expensive, still not a time issue, they reluctantly took up DWs offer of providing CG animation. Even still, it was a half-and-half job between Glendale and Bristol, which is why the movie was DreamWorks/Aardman labeled, although the project was Aardman initiated. But time never came into it, and Aardman pushed for the CG to be done on twos so that it retained the stop-mo feel.

Eric is right in one part though, that Flushed Away was a very enjoyable movie, and I agree with Bill that it's perhaps Aardman's best, at least structurally. I just think DWs lost faith in it, and may have been looking for an "out " from their deal after Wallace & Gromit surprisingly failed, which was the brand that DWs really got into bed with Aardman in the first place for. Since DWs did not have Aardman rights internationally, if they didn't work in the US, then they wouldn't have been interested seeing that the bottom line rules all...

AV Forum Member
AV Forum Member
Posts: 199
Joined: July 3rd, 2007

Re:

Post by CGIFanatic » September 11th, 2010, 11:28 am

Bill1978 wrote:CGIFanatic, could you please explain why you don't think Flished Away is a good movie and why plenty of animators are grateful movies like that aren't made anymore.

I personally like Flushed Away, find it funny and an enjoyable trip and the best of the 3 Aardman feature films. Just interested in getting an opposite perspective to mine
I wasn't saying it was a bad movie but it was the worst received movie ($$$) for DW. I was just saying that if DW continued to make movies like that then they'd probably be history now.

AV Forum Member
AV Forum Member
Posts: 398
Joined: May 28th, 2009
Contact:

Re:

Post by estefan » September 12th, 2010, 9:13 am

Ben wrote: Eric is right in one part though, that Flushed Away was a very enjoyable movie, and I agree with Bill that it's perhaps Aardman's best, at least structurally. I just think DWs lost faith in it, and may have been looking for an "out " from their deal after Wallace & Gromit surprisingly failed, which was the brand that DWs really got into bed with Aardman in the first place for.
I thought Wallace & Gromit turned out a nice profit, more-so in the UK than in the "domestic" market, but still. :?

I feel Chicken Run was Aardman's best feature. Great story, hilarious joke and sight-gag after another (without just relying on chicken puns), likeable characters, note-perfect atmosphere and unlike in Pocahontas, Mel Gibson actually turned in a fun, voice-over performance (though, it helps that Rocky was a lot more interesting and better written character than John Smith). I still feel it's the best feature in the DreamWorks Animation catalogue.

Though, I find Curse of the Were-Rabbit to be truly excellent, even if I don't find myself watching it as much as Chicken Run (which I also think rewards multiple viewings more).

User avatar
AV Founder
AV Founder
Posts: 25294
Joined: October 22nd, 2004
Location: London, UK

Post by Ben » September 14th, 2010, 7:05 am

Considering that DreamWorks basically got into bed with Aardman to get their hands on Wallace & Gromit, and that a W&G feature was a big part of the deal making (even Nick Park said that W&G should stick to shorts), they were expecting big numbers in the returns for the eventual film. That it only earned around $54m in the US (I'm going from memory; shoot me if I'm way out, but it was a "disappointing" figure) wasn't the big payday that DWs was expecting given the popularity of the characters.

Add in the fact that, as I said before, DWs doesn't own the film outside the US, and the better international box-office that the movie generated really didn't help the fact that Were-Rabbit didn't do as well as DWs was hoping for in the US. So the DWs/Aardman relationship was already "rocky" (haha) before Flushed Away came along and watered it down completely. But now I'm repeating myself again...

Post Reply