Originally Posted By jiminy cricket MOUSE BEAR: It's "cAVALry" not cALVAry Calvary was the mount or hillside where Christ was crucified. Cavalry is a an armed regiment. Mounted Cavalry is an armed regiment with weapons. Though, it's rather ironic that you would use this, since "Spirit" is the Calvary on which decent animation was crucified. IMHO
Originally Posted By Dlmusic <<If it does well, even though it will indeed feed into Katzenberg's ego, it will also strike a comeback for taditional animation>> If Lilo and Stitch does well, it will feed Eisner's ego. Generally when a project does well for somebody it feeds their ego. I don't like this attitude many people have that you have to justify liking a Dreamworks movie because it was made by the "evil" Katzenburg. Lots of people like Spirit, others didn't. It's a movie, and throwing around names to insult it doesn't accomplish anything. <<I did not enjoy the narration, the DREADFUL songs, and the jarring mix of computer and hand drawn animation.>> That's interesting because I felt the mix of computer and hand drawn animation was very well done, among the best I've seen. The songs were not completely horrible either, especially compared to Disney's latest (Emperor's New Groove, Return to Neverland?). <<Though, it's rather ironic that you would use this, since "Spirit" is the Calvary on which decent animation was crucified. IMHO>> That is outrageous. It was a movie made by animators who wanted to entertain and inspire. The animators didn't deliberately want to destroy animation. Just because you don't like something doesn't mean it's evil.
Originally Posted By Santa Monica <<The songs were not completely horrible either, especially compared to Disney's latest (Emperor's New Groove, Return to Neverland?).>> It can still be completely horrible even though Emperor's Kuzco song and Return to Neverland's Pop tunes were horrible also. I thought the music was horrible.
Originally Posted By Jim "If Lilo and Stitch does well, it will feed Eisner's ego." That's not true, at least not in the same sense. Eisner is not directly associated with the animation department in the same sense that Katzenberg is. Eisner also does not go on record as proclaiming a movie to be a ground-breaking use of something that isn't all that groundbreaking (at least he didn't when the "tradigital" TARZAN opened in 1999). While I have never been a fan of Katzenberg, I did love PRINCE OF EGYPT. At the same time, there's always something about the loudmouth who proclaims himself to be the best . . . when it isn't true. By the way, I watched TARZAN again this weekend. Now those are some breathtaking "tradigital" backgrounds.
Originally Posted By DlandDug I stand by my contention that the animation in "Spirit" was subpar. That is not saying it was horrible--just not what I have come to expect from DreamWorks. As far as the character animation goes, the horses were very well done, the humans were, well, human-like, and the other animals were...um...animally.I was mostly disappointed with the effects animation. The point I was making in the Mary Blair reference, BTW was that the scene looked like a storybook illustration, as opposed to a scene in an "animated" film. I also agree that the music in "Emporer's New Groove" and "Return to Neverland" was subpar. Just like the music in "Spirit."
Originally Posted By Dlmusic <<Eisner also does not go on record as proclaiming a movie to be a ground-breaking use of something that isn't all that(at least he didn't when the "tradigital" TARZAN opened in 1999). .>> Eisner did tout the "deep canvas" as being the next big thing. Now you can argue that it was a bigger improvement than Spirit is now. Every studio uses hype. The big thing going around Lilo and Stitch is that it's amazing they use watercolor backgrounds for the film. That's not new, either. I don't agree with Dreamworks trying to make every animated film like a brand new effort. I also don't appreciate Disney's hype either. I'm not going to bad mouth a movie just because the hype was false. <<By the way, I watched TARZAN again this weekend. Now those are some breathtaking "tradigital" backgrounds.>> I agree the backgrounds are breathtaking. The character animation blend with the backgrounds though, IMO is not at all on par with Spirit. I know I'm probably in the minority on this but I found that Tarzan's blend was quite poor, often making the characters look flat. Spirit never had that problem with me. According to the Academy Awards last year, Shrek was the best animated film. So he can say it's the best all he wants, when a prestigious organization gives you an award like that. Agreement or no agreement from animation purists.
Originally Posted By TomSawyer Well, Spirit's box office dropped about 40% this weekend and only took in about $10.7 million. It's taken in $38.2 million so far, according to Entertainment Weekly. How much did this movie cost?
Originally Posted By cirque116 From: <a href="http://www.animated-movies.com" target="_blank">http://www.animated-movies.com</a> Updated Spirit Numbers Despite an additional 45 theaters, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron fell 36% this weekend, now topping $38,750,089. The excellent Box Office Mojo estimated the movie's budget at $80 million, and its marketing cost at another $30 million (which include prints and advertising, and is based on the average cost of $31 million, theater counts, how omnipresent the ads are and/or reported stats). FYI, studios get on average around 55% of the final gross.
Originally Posted By Santa Monica I think it cost something like $80M for the film and $30M for marketing.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan2 My out on a limb prediction: Spirit will end up winning the Oscar this year for Best Feature Animated Film. After awarding Shrek the Oscar last year, academy voters will be looking for something "serious" and "artsy", and Spirit is that. It's also very PC, which Hollywood loves.
Originally Posted By Dlmusic Actually it fell 36% to make $11.3 million. It had the smallest decline in the top 10. Falling 36% after Memorial Day weekend shows good legs, it's a very small drop off. By comparison Dinosaur fell 56% percent after the holiday (although it was it's third week). Since there are no family films premiering this weekend, Spirit should have another small decline. It will be difficult for it to make more than $90 million though, especially with Scooby Doo and Lilo and Stitch coming up.
Originally Posted By TikiRoomer Kar2oon: Oscar is known for favoring inferior artsy PC stuff over better films (see Dances With Wolves vs. GoodFellas.) But it also, especially lately, loves box office hits. If Spirit doesn't cleanly break $100 million, it won't win (unless no other animated movie breaks $100 mill, I don't think they'd give it to Ice Age or the Powerpuff Girls at any rate.)
Originally Posted By Dlmusic I don't know if Lilo and Stitch will break $100 million. Especially with all the competition around.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan2 I think Lilo & Stitch will do exceptionally well this summer. It certainley has a lighter tone than Spirit, and I think the whole teaser campaign has really piqued (sp?) interest even beyond the traditional animation audience. Think of it as Elvis vs. Bryan Adams!
Originally Posted By Santa Monica Everyone from my work to school to family is excited to see L&S. I think it'll have no problem passing the $100M mark.
Originally Posted By Santa Monica I'm probably gonna see it three times opening weekend (since I have so many people who want to see it with me).
