Thoughtnami Classics | Living Cartoons

Originally Posted 08/19/04 by Jeff Harris

I'm old enough to remember a time when computer-animated creations weren't prominent in feature films. I'm not talking about 3D animated films, there are plenty of those, and I don't want to give them any more press time than they already get (I'll come back to that around the time The Incredibles gets ready to premiere). Plus, Square Pictures' Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within could have did a lot better if it wasn't called Final Fantasy, especially since there was little connection to the familiar elements in the film, but that's a whole other conversation. It's been many moons since Young Sherlock Holmes, The Abyss, and T2, and CGI heroes, antiheroes, and villians are as commonplace as an unoriginal idea in films.

I'm kidding about the unoriginal idea joke (to a point).

If it wasn't for CGI, the Lord of the Rings trilogy couldn't possibly be made. Okay, that's a lie, it could have been made, but it would have been a dramatically different film. It would have looked and felt like the original Star Wars trilogy. In short, a cinematic masterpiece that has a huge, loyal fanbase . . . kind of like now.

Strangely, the original Star Wars trilogy will never be seen again. Oh, you'll see A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi, but you'll never see the film as it was originally shown in 1977, 1980, and 1983, respectedly. The upcoming DVDs will not bring the much-ballyhooed and much-criticized "Special Editions" to the masses that already have them on tape. In fact, these releases will be the "ultimate vision until George Lucas finds fault with these in about ten years" special edition with many of the same tweaks made in earlier editions as well as introducing reshot and reanimated scenes. Funny thing that George Lucas has created the perfect science-fiction trilogy that has amassed billions in box office receipts and merchandising and countless devoted fans, and yet, he treats the original films as if they were the worst thing he ever produced. He spliced out many of the elements that made the original films real and basically churned out a lot of animated sequences. They're not shoddy by any means (the Sy Snootles sequence was probably my favorite of the Special Edition), but the fact that he'd rather see pixelated characters rather than flesh and blood people in costumes is a wee bit disturbing.

When Lucas made his prequel trilogy, he decided to utilize the latest technology making perhaps the first live-action animated movies. The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones could have been better films if they had a little more flesh-and-blood characters and less of the animated ones.

Oh, and if they had better scripts.

The strange part is that the animated Clone Wars, which will be airing on September 25 during Cartoon Network's Toonami lineup, felt more real than the last two live-action films, and probably because of Clone Wars (and the March mini-series that'll show the scrolling dialogue of Revenge of the Sith in action), I'm actually thinking of plunking down my $6.25 (I'm guessing that's what the price will be at the MacArthur Center Regal Cinema in 2005) for a Saturday matinee of Revenge of the Sith.

The upcoming film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow intrigues and frightens me a little bit (see, if you stayed a while, you knew I'd get to something a little more current than thrashing the cartooniness of the first two Star Wars prequel movies). The trailers looks like a living anime film, which really facinates the pseudootaku within. Seriously, there are planes with flapping wings and robots that look like distant cousins to The Iron Giant roaming the skies. As an animation fan, this really facinates me. However, the film fanatic fears that the animation might overtake a really good story. Perhaps Sky Captain would be the first film to make CGI animation that looks like animation on purpose rather than trying to fool the viewers into thinking that it's real like the first two Star Wars prequel films (let's face it, as cool as that Yoda/Count Dooku fight was, it really looked cheesy and fake) and the Spider-Man films (as much as SM2 outdid the first film in plot and character development, the animation sequences still felt a little too rubbery).

Who knows? Perhaps it'll make a realistic CGI fan out of me yet.