Xander: Look who's got a bad case of Dark Prince envy. Dracula: Leave us. Xander: No, we're not going to "Leabbb you." And where'd you get that accent, Sesame Street? "One, Two, Three - three victims! Maw ha ha!"

'Lessons'


Buffista Movies 3: Panned and Scanned  

A place to talk about movies--Old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.


Hayden - Nov 11, 2004 6:55:46 am PST #5622 of 10001
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."

No kidding. Don't think I'll be catching that one.


tommyrot - Nov 11, 2004 7:52:46 am PST #5623 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

I read an article on The Incredibles in EW where they said that ultra-realistic computer animation is creepy, which is why the cartoonyness of TI is better. Polar Express could be the poster child of too-realistic computer animation. Somewhere I saw it explained that when an artificial human (be it computer animation or robot or whatever) looks almost real, the fact that it looks almost real but is not causes people to be creeped out. There's even a term for this, but I forget....


Steph L. - Nov 11, 2004 7:54:42 am PST #5624 of 10001
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine

Uncanny Valley, which someone mentioned above.


Lilty Cash - Nov 11, 2004 7:56:15 am PST #5625 of 10001
"You see? THAT's what they want. Love, and a bit with a dog."

I wasn't creeped out by the very real animation in Final Fantasy. But that wasn't a kids movie, either. That could make a difference.


tommyrot - Nov 11, 2004 7:59:06 am PST #5626 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

Uncanny Valley, which someone mentioned above.

Oh. Now I remember - it didn't ring a bell when I read JZ's post....


Jessica - Nov 11, 2004 7:59:14 am PST #5627 of 10001
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset

Motion-capture has the capacity to make things look extremely creepy, if you use it as anything more than a rough guide. It lends a sort of Gentlemen-esque glide-y-ness to everyone's movements, especially walking and hand gestures.


Tom Scola - Nov 11, 2004 8:00:03 am PST #5628 of 10001
Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.

I wasn't creeped out by the animation in Final Fantasy, but the fact that they put the voices of well-known actors on different bodies bugged me.


tommyrot - Nov 11, 2004 8:03:02 am PST #5629 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

I wasn't creeped out by Final Fantasy either, but I did experience a lot of something akin to cognitive dissonance, as some scenes did look totally real to me and some (most) did not. I had this weird sensation of the reality of the movie flip-flopping between animation and live-action.


Sean K - Nov 11, 2004 8:04:05 am PST #5630 of 10001
You can't leave me to my own devices; my devices are Nap and Eat. -Zenkitty

I thought the animation in FF was incredible, and easy to watch (even though there were still problems with hand movements and lip movements). Somehow, whatever they did for FF, they did NOT do for PE.


JZ - Nov 11, 2004 8:05:31 am PST #5631 of 10001
See? I gave everybody here an opportunity to tell me what a bad person I am and nobody did, because I fuckin' rule.

And now I'm thinking about a Polar Express that could have worked -- a half-hour TV special, no padding added to the book, and Sky Captain's technique, with real actors weaving their way through fuzzy-edged nostalgic/futuristic computer-generated sets with a muted watercolor glow that perfectly echoes Van Allsburg's illustrations. That could have worked, beautifully, dammit. Zemeckis, you bastard, you bastard, Zemeckis.