So, because I keep seeing nothing but terrible trailers for live action and Illumination Studios reboot cashcows nobody asked for, I decided to pull up the Wikipedia full list of films (regardless of if they are high-grossing or not) for the fiscal years of 2018, 2019, and 2020. The following were counted:
This includes both potentially good and blatantly bad titles for the sake of quantitative evaluation, but the real point of this thread is to discuss the future of animation for Hollywood and 3D filmmaking in general. I acknowledge that not every adaptation of old media will be a soulless cashgrab; Alita did very well against most expectations and there was a lot of heart put into it. In the cases of a potential AKIRA live action set in America however (this is theoretical but dont be shocked if this will be the case), this would have consequences regarding erasure of the social and political context in which Katsuhiro Otomo wrote it (that contributed to its success as both animation and a piece that is permanently part of postmodern/postwar popular culture). But this is a topic for another thread.
So some ideas for thought (just for ur opinion, you don't have to answer these directly btw)
[video=youtube]
See also: Angry Birds, Emoji Movie, the Smurfs, Shark Tale, Sing, Trolls, the list goes on
Personally, until Spiderverse, I was convinced Hollywood saw little value in animated films other than serving only to market it towards children. Plots tended to be shallow or just not interesting enough if they weren't busy trying to use Angry Birds or Emojis to try and cater to a generation that currently finds humor in things that are either nonsensical or things that cannot be explained to middle-aged executives beyond old cringey memes from 2007. Ready Player One wasn't that bad either for being 90% CGI and being full of pop culture references; people ragged on it for this but it isn't that different from actual online games. Fortnite's emotes are full of references to meme dances (Carlton dance, for one), MMOs may choose to create cosmetic items referencing different pop culture figures, Overwatch made sprays for Baptiste that blatantly reference old memes (Do You Even Lift Bro, Cool Story Bro) or dragonball memes of 2009 (Over 9,000, his scouter, Moira's kamehameha sprays, her Gendo pose spray, her AKIRA spray, etc). We just don't like it when corporate entities try to be part of the in-crowd because using memes via social media is a recently frowned-upon marketing tactic.
It's hard to tell if after Spiderverse's success, we will see more teenager/young adult themed animation. Overall, I keep getting this feeling that aside from creatively original and unique shorts Disney allows people to create, the things that get picked out from the crop are shallow and unoriginal ideas because they don't care how much heart is put into it (musical theatre has the opposite principles, ironically enough). They only want whatever makes money without any real effort, because money talks, and not every moviegoer is that picky other than wanting to have a good time with friends and family. It feels like it will end up stifling the leaps and bounds the Western animated film industry made in the 80s and 90s in terms of technology and creative work.
But enough about my rambles, I'll step off my soapbox so others can make their own rant. :lmao:
- Live action films that effectively reboot or adapt franchises that previously only existed as 2D animations (TV/film) OR videogames
- 3D/CGI films that are adaptations or reboots of media that originated in the form of toys
- 3D films (Illumination pictures mostly) made out of media that existed previously as toy lines or popular culture phenomena of the mid to late 2000s OR generally obscure/niche ideas that only landed them a 3/10 on IMDB
- Films by separate studios, but essentially plagiarized each other's ideas (i.e. Truth or Dare 2017 vs 2018) with little differences
- Sequels to 3D movies that have existed as original franchises (like Toy Story) or are adapted from books/novels do not count. Reboots that overwrite previously existing book-adaptations do count (except IT since I'm pretty sure the 80s movie was a TV showing)
This includes both potentially good and blatantly bad titles for the sake of quantitative evaluation, but the real point of this thread is to discuss the future of animation for Hollywood and 3D filmmaking in general. I acknowledge that not every adaptation of old media will be a soulless cashgrab; Alita did very well against most expectations and there was a lot of heart put into it. In the cases of a potential AKIRA live action set in America however (this is theoretical but dont be shocked if this will be the case), this would have consequences regarding erasure of the social and political context in which Katsuhiro Otomo wrote it (that contributed to its success as both animation and a piece that is permanently part of postmodern/postwar popular culture). But this is a topic for another thread.
So some ideas for thought (just for ur opinion, you don't have to answer these directly btw)
- Will we eventually see a future in which reboots will outnumber the amount of interesting and original ideas out there?
- How far are Hollywood investors willing to dump cash into soulless live action reboots of Disney films? And why do they sometimes insist on the weirdest ideas that either bootleg successful Pixar films or just use an existing IP for shallow profit?
- Does it even matter because Disney is slowly engulfing everything and expanding its empire constantly (much like the theory that the universe is constantly expanding, hm?)
[video=youtube]
See also: Angry Birds, Emoji Movie, the Smurfs, Shark Tale, Sing, Trolls, the list goes on
Personally, until Spiderverse, I was convinced Hollywood saw little value in animated films other than serving only to market it towards children. Plots tended to be shallow or just not interesting enough if they weren't busy trying to use Angry Birds or Emojis to try and cater to a generation that currently finds humor in things that are either nonsensical or things that cannot be explained to middle-aged executives beyond old cringey memes from 2007. Ready Player One wasn't that bad either for being 90% CGI and being full of pop culture references; people ragged on it for this but it isn't that different from actual online games. Fortnite's emotes are full of references to meme dances (Carlton dance, for one), MMOs may choose to create cosmetic items referencing different pop culture figures, Overwatch made sprays for Baptiste that blatantly reference old memes (Do You Even Lift Bro, Cool Story Bro) or dragonball memes of 2009 (Over 9,000, his scouter, Moira's kamehameha sprays, her Gendo pose spray, her AKIRA spray, etc). We just don't like it when corporate entities try to be part of the in-crowd because using memes via social media is a recently frowned-upon marketing tactic.
It's hard to tell if after Spiderverse's success, we will see more teenager/young adult themed animation. Overall, I keep getting this feeling that aside from creatively original and unique shorts Disney allows people to create, the things that get picked out from the crop are shallow and unoriginal ideas because they don't care how much heart is put into it (musical theatre has the opposite principles, ironically enough). They only want whatever makes money without any real effort, because money talks, and not every moviegoer is that picky other than wanting to have a good time with friends and family. It feels like it will end up stifling the leaps and bounds the Western animated film industry made in the 80s and 90s in terms of technology and creative work.
But enough about my rambles, I'll step off my soapbox so others can make their own rant. :lmao: