Finally saw Quest for Camelot.
Who else has seen this awful film? Recently enough that your nostalgia goggles aren't clouding how truly horrible it is?
First off, I think I need to say that I don't think that it was necessarily the *artists* who didn't make this good, even though most of the drawings were terrible. I know they had talent on the film, something *else* must have ruined the mix.
This is the second time I've tried to watch the film. The first time through, I got to the RANDOM FLASHBACKS to things that had happened five minutes ago (film time) and turned it off. I can understand why they want to reinforce how much this girl loved her father, and how much fun they had together. Apparently they only ever did one thing, though, which was roll down a hill and have him tell her the exposition to the film, setting up the King Arthur myth for anyone not already familiar with it. (Movie aimed at kids, I guess they have to learn somewhere, right?)
So. Got past the awful flashbacks. And the random songs. And found some of the few character designs that I actually liked in the film, the animals.
The griffin was cool. Not personality-wise, I think he was supposed to be yet another comedic talking animal that fell flat. Like the chicken. The random chicken with hand-feathers. And the neat looking pig designs. And the cool looking cow/yak/whatever.
These cartoony creatures co-existed with completely mundane horses. After Our Heroine's father has died, the knights bring him back to his little family house. (Why was a knight/feudal lord living in a tiny little house, btw? It's not cheap to be a knight!) The horses all had the same blank expression on their faces. I wanted them to be sad. And then I realised that if they could be sad, then that would mean that they understood the situation, and then they would have a whole other degree of intelligence.
BUT IF THE CHICKEN COULD MAKE FEATHER HANDS... Right??
The dragon, though his legs creeped the *hell* out of anyone watching since they were basically woman legs that walked weird on a big ol' fat two headed dragon, was... Well, I liked the head designs. And I liked how they animated their mouths, though there was some problem going from when the Eric Idle dragon talked with just the tip of his muzzle to when he had his mouth all the way open.
And their song failed.
And they weren't actually funny.
And now to the blind hero! People pegged it (I'm lookin' at you, pirate_squid), when they said that his blindness was such a non-handicap that it might as well not have existed at all. Yes I am all about seeing people with disabilities overcome them and be able to do whatever they wanted. But he was just too much. And he could really do it all!
And our heroine could do nothing. For all she wanted to be an improbably female knight, she was stuck being crappy the whole film. Sure, she could do some stuff... Maybe I'm just being too hard on her.
None of the characters were particularly cool.
The backgrounds in this were too bright, too cartoony. They didn't feel real, didn't feel like a world. Even if you were going for generic fantasy, there still have to be mosquitoes and frogs and moss and whatever, just to fill out the ecosystem, right? Without those things, everything just feels like it's a boring dA painting.
Anyway. I need to pop the dvd in the ol' computer and get some of the TERRIBLE screenshots that there are. For the lulz.
I just can't believe that they made space jam, then cats don't dance, then *this*, then iron giant. I know that they've got different creative teams working on them, etc, but how do you go form this to iron giant?? Iron Giant had such a great style.
Bored with talking about this film now. It was bad. I'm glad I saw it, so that next time people are talking about it, I can say that yes, indeed, it was bad.
First off, I think I need to say that I don't think that it was necessarily the *artists* who didn't make this good, even though most of the drawings were terrible. I know they had talent on the film, something *else* must have ruined the mix.
This is the second time I've tried to watch the film. The first time through, I got to the RANDOM FLASHBACKS to things that had happened five minutes ago (film time) and turned it off. I can understand why they want to reinforce how much this girl loved her father, and how much fun they had together. Apparently they only ever did one thing, though, which was roll down a hill and have him tell her the exposition to the film, setting up the King Arthur myth for anyone not already familiar with it. (Movie aimed at kids, I guess they have to learn somewhere, right?)
So. Got past the awful flashbacks. And the random songs. And found some of the few character designs that I actually liked in the film, the animals.
The griffin was cool. Not personality-wise, I think he was supposed to be yet another comedic talking animal that fell flat. Like the chicken. The random chicken with hand-feathers. And the neat looking pig designs. And the cool looking cow/yak/whatever.
These cartoony creatures co-existed with completely mundane horses. After Our Heroine's father has died, the knights bring him back to his little family house. (Why was a knight/feudal lord living in a tiny little house, btw? It's not cheap to be a knight!) The horses all had the same blank expression on their faces. I wanted them to be sad. And then I realised that if they could be sad, then that would mean that they understood the situation, and then they would have a whole other degree of intelligence.
BUT IF THE CHICKEN COULD MAKE FEATHER HANDS... Right??
The dragon, though his legs creeped the *hell* out of anyone watching since they were basically woman legs that walked weird on a big ol' fat two headed dragon, was... Well, I liked the head designs. And I liked how they animated their mouths, though there was some problem going from when the Eric Idle dragon talked with just the tip of his muzzle to when he had his mouth all the way open.
And their song failed.
And they weren't actually funny.
And now to the blind hero! People pegged it (I'm lookin' at you, pirate_squid), when they said that his blindness was such a non-handicap that it might as well not have existed at all. Yes I am all about seeing people with disabilities overcome them and be able to do whatever they wanted. But he was just too much. And he could really do it all!
And our heroine could do nothing. For all she wanted to be an improbably female knight, she was stuck being crappy the whole film. Sure, she could do some stuff... Maybe I'm just being too hard on her.
None of the characters were particularly cool.
The backgrounds in this were too bright, too cartoony. They didn't feel real, didn't feel like a world. Even if you were going for generic fantasy, there still have to be mosquitoes and frogs and moss and whatever, just to fill out the ecosystem, right? Without those things, everything just feels like it's a boring dA painting.
Anyway. I need to pop the dvd in the ol' computer and get some of the TERRIBLE screenshots that there are. For the lulz.
I just can't believe that they made space jam, then cats don't dance, then *this*, then iron giant. I know that they've got different creative teams working on them, etc, but how do you go form this to iron giant?? Iron Giant had such a great style.
Bored with talking about this film now. It was bad. I'm glad I saw it, so that next time people are talking about it, I can say that yes, indeed, it was bad.