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The Universal Studios Big Budget Flop Fest


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13 minutes ago, Jon O'Brien said:

I haven't seen it .... but I will say this. I've never, not once, ever, seen a CGI movie with fake CGI animals in it that impressed me (the closest that managed to be okay, in my opinion, was The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe - with the character of Aslan). CGI artists in every single case I've seen do a terrible job with animals. Straight up cartoons, as in Disney cartoons (for instance the original Lion King) do much, much better because they're not trying to depict reality. I grew up around animals. CGI you can tell they don't 'get' animals. They haven't really a clue. I will not go and see another movie with CGI animals in it. Ever. Just totally over most CGI.

It was once an adage of stage veterans: never appear with animals, because they will upstage you. Steal the show. Because they have natural entertainment value. Don't CGI 'em.

The one in Life of Pi is pretty good..  have a look ..

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Life Of Pi is phenomenal yeah. About the animals, it's hard but it can be done convincingly. It's also one thing to deal with animals on a shoe string budget and quite another to have animals in a big budget film that would be required to do things that would either be dangerous for them, for the crew or just plainly not humanly feasible. 

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On 1/26/2020 at 8:15 PM, Richard Boddington said:

You can't watch this video without laughing, especially since it was so obvious from the script stage, the movie would be a total disaster:
 

 

Am I the only one in the world who liked this movie?

If we skip the horrendous CGI (which I don't understand the reason why it is like it is in 2020) I liked the songs and I found it entertaining! 

I'm a big fan of the musical so maybe it has something to do with it! ? 

 

Have a lovely day. 

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I didn't hate it, it's entertaining and incredibly bizarre, the CGI work though (aside from human faced cockroaches and mice (that was bad) ) is not to blame, it's the design itself. Several big VFX artists actually talked about it and said the work itself is strong as well, it's the design that so many people are freaked out by. I'm used to it but I'm surprised that they forged ahead with that design. 

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With Dolittle I think they grossly overestimated the draw of CGI talking animals. Maybe 20 years ago that in and of itself would have been a wondrous thing to see, but today's audiences routinely see amazing VFX work in movies and TV shows, so talking animals are no longer a big deal. Same with spaceships, dragons, etc., so there has to be something else in the story or characters to attract them.

It's not like Dr. Dolittle is especially beloved IP. Audiences have forgotten the Rex Harrison film. The Eddie Murphy versions were hits at the time, but are also essentially forgotten. Does anyone even read the original books these days? Maybe in England? Dr. Dolittle is not a character that has persisted in our collective imaginations like, say, Sherlock Holmes.

Edited by Ravi Kiran
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28 minutes ago, Richard Boddington said:

I hear the IP argument, day in and day out.  What IP was Star Wars based on?

R,

To be fair 1977 and 2020 are 2 very different eras. Due to the internet and widespread cable television, the western world is addicted to familiarity, especially childhood familiarity.

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And yet......big IP movies flop every year.  There is so much risk and unknowns in this industry.  No matter what, if you spend 150 million on your movie, you need to make that back, otherwise...it's a failure.

R,

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6 hours ago, Brian Drysdale said:

"Star Wars" was an unexpected success, It was shot extremely tightly compared to the way they'd shoot a film these days.

I think the meager 7M budget was a help to George Lucas not a hinderance.  It disciplined him and the crew.

R,

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On 1/26/2020 at 7:50 PM, Richard Boddington said:

You have all the box office data?

Why do I get into these discussions with people on the internet is the larger question????????

R,

 

 

 

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0368226/?ref_=bo_se_r_1

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0368226/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

As best that can be figured out. 

Why you get into these discussions? I don't know, but you brought it up, not me.

I think the argument that as long as we make the worst films possible, but keep the budgets low so we can make a profit, will not have a long term life success for the industry.

I would be happy I guess if I made a film that entertained everyone, even if it was for all the wrong reasons, but I would prefer to try and make something that is actually good. So I would suggest that we should all try to make the best film possible, with whatever means we can.

In 1932 during the world wide depression all the American studios decided to not exceed $250,000.00 for any film, for the sake of their own future, as anything over that was likely to not make a profit. And they succeeded and lasted to this very day, well some of them. The business is not really run quite the same way today.

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On 1/30/2020 at 11:29 AM, Richard Boddington said:

I think the meager 7M budget was a help to George Lucas not a hinderance.  It disciplined him and the crew.

R,

I hate to be the nitpicker of the group, but the budget for Star Wars was 10M, with an additional 1M provided by George himself. Don't worry, he got the toy rights for that cool million.  He originally did ask for 7M though.

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