Western Animation - Discuss American, Canadian, and European cartoons here (or just bitch about wokeshit, I guess)

[Romeo]

Crossposting this from the Flashgitz Appreciation Thread:​

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Another white-pill in the animation works. Tom and Don of Flashgitz released their pilot episode of their animated series Space King last Saturday, which is obviously a parody of their favorite hobby Warhammer 40k.​

Space King​

It's pretty funny and the art and animation are pretty good. They are trying to do more episodes but they're asking for more people to donate to their Patreon so that this series could be sustainable.​

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Commentary from the Animators​

Tired of all your media being filled with the lamest shit possible? Want a show that doesn't hate your male power fantasies, but embraces them? There's plenty of independent animation targeted at mentally ill teenage girls, *shows character from Vivziepop's Hazbin Hotel* (what a roast, holy shit) but what about mentally ill teenage boys? And 30 year old men? Don't we matter too? Space King thinks so! (...) There exists another version, a better, uncensored version! The true version -- and maybe the last episode of Space King we ever make, (...) because we're not willing to sell this show to Hollywood for them to turn into dogshit like everything else, so support us on Patreon! And we'll turn every dollar to making more episodes of Space King! Untouched and uncensored and in return we'll give you goodies, gifts, rewards, trinkets, production updates, and most importantly, more Space King. We cannot fund more episodes without you.​

We made this pilot episode entirely with our own money and a dedicated team of artists who poured their souls into the project. We want to keep this project utterly independent to the tell the stories and jokes WE want to tell without meddling. However, animation is incredibly expensive and without a big studio backing us we cannot afford to keep making episodes without help. IF you want more episodes of Space King, please consider joining our Patreon so we can keep this passion project going and deliver something you love. This is just the beginning.​

The pay more to see tits segment is a bit cringe, but I think this is finally a potential animated series that God have graced this thread with. I highly recommend a watch!

Seems like there will be more independent animated series to look forwards to when the industry failed us.
​

 

[Oilspill Battery]

First trailer for it dropped today:

>no dialogue for the animals OR the robot
>movie looks gorgeous
>head of story for Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is on this one
>directed by Chris Sanders

Guys.....throw out the rainbows....but The Prince of Egypt might finally be de-throned by this as Dreamworks' best animated film yet.

My only complaint with the trailer is that they they ruin it by having the single line at the end be the shittiest most generic and predictable thing they could have possibly come up with. In like half a second it goes from a 10/10 to a 7/10.

Don't know why its not silent throughout, would have been so much better.

>no dialogue for the animals OR the robot

I was also hoping it would be a completely silent film, but then I saw the credits which is making me fear the trailer is gonna be a bait and switch.

 

[TVB]

Don't know why its not silent throughout, would have been so much better.

I was also hoping it would be a completely silent film, but then I saw the credits which is making me fear the trailer is gonna be a bait and switch.
View attachment 5796235

Well there are two animated movies about robots that had dialogue. The Iron Giant and Robots come to my mind, both are which were, at one point underrated gems, but have since then became cult classics. I hope The Wild Robot does carry that same torch as the two. Even if the movie's never going to be silent with minority dialogue unlike WALL-E, I at least have high hopes with this

 

[starborn427614]

It'll be visually amazing at the very least. That's part of why I'm still gonna see KFP4 in theaters, for the animation and fight choreography.

 

[Sergeant Major Buzzkill]

I remembered the Monsters v Aliens (2009) movie today out of fucking nowhere. I'm surprised of the low score it has on IMDB (6.9, i think?) I remember enjoying it a lot when I was nine or ten years old. Still got the dvd and might pop it in sometime during my break.

Was it really worse than I remembered? I liked the action sequences a lot.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

Just want to point out that finding out that Akira Toriyama, the Dragon Ball/Dr. Slump creator and Chrono Trigger character designer, passing away is just like finding out that Charles Schulz, the man who created Peanuts to the world, had died.

It just says a lot about how much childhood memories can really come back to make you realize that there was a time when optimism in fun children’s entertainment was a thing.

 

[TVB]

I'm surprised of the low score it has on IMDB (6.9, i think?)

6.9 isn't actually a low score on IMDb, just average.

Was it really worse than I remembered? I liked the action sequences a lot.

The action scenes were cool, and it had some other cool moments such as this

But it was handicapped by a couple plotholes, the comedy at times are completely and, which brings me to my next point, the majority of it was focused on B.o.B as voiced by dude weed lmao. Like when every time an emotional scene comes to a close, B.o.B interrupts it with a childish jokes, similar to that of most of modern Family Guy and how it uses emotional beats.

But a bigger cardinal sin was DreamWorks being too cocky by having to turn into a franchise before it even came out to theatres, but by the time the movie came and went, the studio changed plans and focused their eggs on Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon instead. See, the movie may performed well, but its overseas box office gross had the studio, and its distributor at that time Paramount, became less motivated about turning it into a franchise. Only two short films, a Halloween special and a short-lived 6-episode series were made and, after all of that, DreamWorks swept it under the rug

 

[Sergeant Major Buzzkill]

But a bigger cardinal sin was DreamWorks being too cocky by having to turn into a franchise before it even came out to theatres, but by the time the movie came and went, the studio changed plans and focused their eggs on Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon instead. See, the movie may performed well, but its overseas box office gross had the studio, and its distributor at that time Paramount, became less motivated about turning it into a franchise. Only two short films, a Halloween special and a short-lived 6-episode series were made and, after all of that, DreamWorks swept it under the rug

That's a shame, I thought Susan/Ginormica was cool.

I think I saw the Nick show (that shit actually had two seasons, if I remember correctly) before watching the movie. Sucks how they basically made B.O.B. the main character when Ginormica was infinitely more interesting.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Currently sitting in a theater with my brothers for KP4, just randomly decided to walk in. Figured might as well, DreamWorks is going to practically die at the end of the year, I wanna still show my support for them even though I have no high hopes for this film.

Supposedly it's going to be a full theater, but not many folks have showed yet, trailers start in five minutes.

 

[Morethanabitfoolish]

Anxiety being a literal near supervillian tho is a bit unexpected, ill give them that

I suspect the message is probably going to be something about not letting certain emotions bury others given the trailer shows the new ones lead by Anxiety bottling up the original emotional range. So Disney are going to get whined at for minimising anxiety.

I was also hoping it would be a completely silent film, but then I saw the credits which is making me fear the trailer is gonna be a bait and switch.

Bill Nighy? I smell British villain.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

It's been said that a bad casting choice can ruin a character. Awkwafina can't voice-act to save her life, unless she's not being directed right for whatever reason. I honestly can't tell you if Xin is supposed to be a fine character or not simply because her voice and emotions (if you can call it emoting) is awful. I think I get what they were trying to go for her, in that no matter your background, you have potential to grow, but Xin I don't think deserves being trained to become the next Dragon Warrior. I dunno, I also have a feeling Xin was supposed to be a male at first, I got serious Nick Wilde vibes from her.

The Chameleon I think had a nice design and Viola Davis was good, I just don't know if her villainous nature fits with the Confucius themes. Might just be how Chinese women villains are supposed to be.

And what the fuck did they do to Po's fathers? Bruh. They're such nervous wrecks.

Also the story animatic leak of Xin playing mahjongg with Po and family wasn't in the movie. Interesting.

Needed more time in the oven, if you ask me. Just wasn't feeling it with this one, and I don't remember the third film much, either.

 

[Basic Blond Boy]

Just saw Kung Fu Panda 4 as well. It was a fine film. Might even say better than the 3rd as at least it didn’t retcon a major plot point and weaken its impact.

Some things to note that @Kari Kamiya didn’t.

The humor in this film feels a little too ADD for my liking. To many weird Angel and Devil on my shoulders and inner thought jokes that clash hard with the former movies style.

They basically turned Po’s dads into a gay couple. Like, it isn’t stated or some woke thing, but they are just nervous wrecks giving each other emotional support. Their plotline felt super tacked on and dragged the film at times.

The animation is very nice, but I cannot tell what the style they were going for is. It is definitely less detailed and realistic than the first 3 movies, but it isn’t the new age Spider-Verse style either. Characters just seem less detailed compared to former films. I sort of like the simplicity, but it is fairly noticeable.

Plot wraps up way too quick. The final battle feels over before it had even begun. Zhen literally defeats the bad guy with one move.

Ending feels hollow. They tried to make a call back to the spiritual scene of the water droplet on the leaf from 2, but it just doesn’t work.

As for the good. I like Zhen quite a bit. She has a very 2000s, early 10s female character feel to her. Not a girl boss, comedic and competent enough to hold attention. The humor outside of above is good standard KFP affair, with the bunnies being a highlight. Main plot is decent and character motivations work, though I feel the Chameleon gets shafted quite a bit as she feels very low stakes.

 

[Oilspill Battery]

Well there are two animated movies about robots that had dialogue. The Iron Giant and Robots come to my mind, both are which were, at one point underrated gems, but have since then became cult classics. I hope The Wild Robot does carry that same torch as the two. Even if the movie's never going to be silent with minority dialogue unlike WALL-E, I at least have high hopes with this

My issue is that they brag about all the "award winning" actors they have for the cast.

Spoiler

"The Wild Robot stars Academy Award® winner Lupita Nyong’o (Us, The Black Panther franchise) as robot Roz; Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us, The Mandalorian) as fox Fink; Emmy winner Catherine O’Hara (Schitt’s Creek, Best in Show) as opossum Pinktail; Oscar® nominee Bill Nighy (Living, Love Actually) as goose Longneck; Kit Connor (Heartstopper, Rocketman) as gosling Brightbill and Oscar® nominee Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once, this summer’s The Fall Guy) as Vontra, a robot that will intersect with Roz’s life on the island. The film also features the voice talents of Emmy winning pop-culture icon Mark Hamill (Star Wars franchise, The Boy and the Heron), Matt Berry (What We Do in the Shadows, The SpongeBob Movie franchise) and Golden Globe winner and Emmy nominee Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible films, Pulp Fiction)."

And if there's one thing I know is that you don't hire award winning actors in an animated film to make a silent introspective piece.

Doubly so when they're regular famous actors instead of voice actors.

 

[Overly Serious]

That's a shame, I thought Susan/Ginormica was cool.

I think I saw the Nick show (that shit actually had two seasons, if I remember correctly) before watching the movie. Sucks how they basically made B.O.B. the main character when Ginormica was infinitely more interesting.

It was a good movie. Decent jokes both overt and subtle and with likeable characters. It treated everyone in the movie with affection and it managed to portray Susan and her gaining self-esteem and independence from... Gavin? Gary? Whatever-his-name-was, without being Woke about it. I still remember the lines "But I want a real kitten, hanging from a real tree" and "Also, the government has changed your name to Ginormica" making me laugh.

One of those films that had the ingredients for it but never quite achieved lift-off. Just as Megamind is superior to Despicable Me. I think maybe the subtle elements in both fail to compete commercially with the heavy and broad strokes of their competition. It's an indictment of people more than the movies.

 

[starborn427614]

Just saw Kung Fu Panda 4 as well. It was a fine film. Might even say better than the 3rd as at least it didn’t retcon a major plot point and weaken its impact.

Some things to note that @Kari Kamiya didn’t.

The humor in this film feels a little too ADD for my liking. To many weird Angel and Devil on my shoulders and inner thought jokes that clash hard with the former movies style.

They basically turned Po’s dads into a gay couple. Like, it isn’t stated or some woke thing, but they are just nervous wrecks giving each other emotional support. Their plotline felt super tacked on and dragged the film at times.

The animation is very nice, but I cannot tell what the style they were going for is. It is definitely less detailed and realistic than the first 3 movies, but it isn’t the new age Spider-Verse style either. Characters just seem less detailed compared to former films. I sort of like the simplicity, but it is fairly noticeable.

Plot wraps up way too quick. The final battle feels over before it had even begun. Zhen literally defeats the bad guy with one move.

Ending feels hollow. They tried to make a call back to the spiritual scene of the water droplet on the leaf from 2, but it just doesn’t work.

As for the good. I like Zhen quite a bit. She has a very 2000s, early 10s female character feel to her. Not a girl boss, comedic and competent enough to hold attention. The humor outside of above is good standard KFP affair, with the bunnies being a highlight. Main plot is decent and character motivations work, though I feel the Chameleon gets shafted quite a bit as she feels very low stakes.

How were the fight scenes? I hear there's a ton of them.

 

[Basic Blond Boy]

How were the fight scenes? I hear there's a ton of them.

As good as usual. The final just lacks emotion and is definitely the worst of the fights. Most memorable fight is the one with a bar on a cliff, where the bar will tip over if too much weight on one side. I also like how early fights show Po’s nature as he is constantly saving people and returning stolen goods mid fight.

This is pretty much how I would describe this movie. It is Kung Fu Panda, but lacking the emotion. Movie doesn’t have a “It’s my time” or inner peace scene. Villain has a great connection to Po in being barred from Kung Fu due to physical appearance, but movie does hardly anything with it.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Villain has a great connection to Po in being barred from king fu due to physical appearance, but movie does hardly anything with it.

This just doesn't make sense to me, because other clunky characters have learned kung fu just fine. Unless Chameleon was just from a different time, she could've still learned kung fu, especially since she can shape-shift (even if it's just due to magic). Really sounds more like it was just an excuse for why it was she couldn't make it into martial arts.

 

[FatR]

The actual takeaway of KFP 1 is "nothing but inborn talent matters, but if you appear to be doomed to a life of a useless slob, that's because the world is too stubborn and set in the old ways to see how much of a special snowflake you are". So, a villain being barred from kung fu, despite actually being OP as shit, makes perfect sense within these parameters. But so does the filmmakers' inability to do anything meaningful with it, because the more you examine your themes, the more you risk drawing the attention to the takeaway above

 

[TVB]

My issue is that they brag about all the "award winning" actors they have for the cast.

Spoiler

"The Wild Robot stars Academy Award® winner Lupita Nyong’o (Us, The Black Panther franchise) as robot Roz; Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us, The Mandalorian) as fox Fink; Emmy winner Catherine O’Hara (Schitt’s Creek, Best in Show) as opossum Pinktail; Oscar® nominee Bill Nighy (Living, Love Actually) as goose Longneck; Kit Connor (Heartstopper, Rocketman) as gosling Brightbill and Oscar® nominee Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once, this summer’s The Fall Guy) as Vontra, a robot that will intersect with Roz’s life on the island. The film also features the voice talents of Emmy winning pop-culture icon Mark Hamill (Star Wars franchise, The Boy and the Heron), Matt Berry (What We Do in the Shadows, The SpongeBob Movie franchise) and Golden Globe winner and Emmy nominee Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible films, Pulp Fiction)."

And if there's one thing I know is that you don't hire award winning actors in an animated film to make a silent introspective piece.

Doubly so when they're regular famous actors instead of voice actors.

Remember, big studios such as Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks and Fox were already known for having to hire celebs to do voice acting, even if a lot do not know how to act nor even watch cartoons

 

[Basic Blond Boy]

This just doesn't make sense to me, because other clunky characters have learned kung fu just fine. Unless Chameleon was just from a different time, she could've still learned kung fu, especially since she can shape-shift (even if it's just due to magic). Really sounds more like it was just an excuse for why it was she couldn't make it into martial arts.

I think they wanted to go for a theme of Po placing trust in others unlike the Chameleon, but it again seems very unfocused.