Space Chimps

[Ben]

I'd totally forgotten about SC2 until I saw a big billboard for it and got scared. The trailer is out:

http://spacechimps2.com/index_large.html

[estefan]

Did anybody else get flashes of Pandora when that sting-ray creature appeared?

And that alien child is really ugly-looking.

[Ben]

It's not just the alien kid that looks ugly...

[eddievalient]

Well, unless you're one of the Big Four (Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks, Blue Sky), it seems nearly impossible to make money in animation these days (just look at the late, lamented Imagi) so I always like to hear of a smaller studio getting something done. I never saw the first Space Chimps, but I wanted to so now I suppose I will.

[Ben]

Haha..."it seems nearly impossible to make money in animation these days"...despite the fact that we have a Space Chimps 2 means that the first one actually made enough for Vanguard to consider a sequel.

I have to say, from what I've seen of the first Chimps, that this looks much lower in quality. Given that it must have been rushed through, I think this is close to being a video sequel that got a last minute boost to theatrical life due to a healthy interest from a pick-up from a distributor (in the US case, Fox).

But it doesn't look to have the animation quality or (even light) plotting of the original.

[Locall]

OMG! This looks horrible... especially when they are flying past a weird looking couple of aliens that are waving at them... lmao!

[starlioness]

hmmm.. I wonder when they'll release this in the U.S? the site says it'll be out in theaters in the U.K this weekend??..

hey, Ben did you see Happily N'ever after 2: the Snow White story?.. (yikes animation there )


hated the design of the aliens,.. ( rather watch planet 51, Monsters vs Aliens. or Terra than this :p)

[Ben]

Nope, I "unfortunately" missed Happily 2, and Open Season 2, and will probably miss out on Space Chimps 2...

I have the first Chimps to watch on my DVR, and actually am looking forward to watching it. I have a bunch of stuff to catch up on there: Chimps, Igor, Fly Me To The Moon, The Tale Of Despereaux.

In terms of other recent GC movies, I do actually want to catch up with Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (have the BD, just not the chance to watch yet) and Planet 51 (waiting for a price drop) too, and I really must see what the fuss is over Battle For Terra, which continues to get good word of mouth.

But sometimes...although I try and see as much as I can out of interest, there are those films that you just know are a complete waste of your time...

[eddievalient]

Terra deserves to get good word of mouth. The animation is perfectly servicable considering the low budget and the story is very enjoyable. It flopped, I think, mainly due to a complete lack of advertising. If it had been marketed better, it might have at least made its budget back from the Star Wars crowd since there were no other similar films out at the time. Oh well.

[eddievalient]

OK, so I finally saw Space Chimps (picked it up on sale the other day). I really liked it. As noted previously, it does seem intended primarily for a kid audience. Judged on that basis, it's a fine piece of work and I got more than a few chuckles out of it. Patrick Warburton is good, as always, and the score (partially composed by the Blue Man Group) is excellent. It may never go down as a classic, but it's well worth seeing anyway. In fact, it may be Vanguard's best film to date (I didn't really care for Valiant or Happily Never After).

[EricJ]

Terra deserves to get good word of mouth. The animation is perfectly servicable considering the low budget and the story is very enjoyable. It flopped, I think, mainly due to a complete lack of advertising. If it had been marketed better, it might have at least made its budget back from the Star Wars crowd since there were no other similar films out at the time. Oh well.

Wouldn't say "no similar films", as the plot was too easily confusable with "Delgo", which became the main infamous guilt-by-association from the headlines.
And then the fact that Delgo, Terra and Chimps 1 all came and went during the same three month spring doldrums glutted themselves out of any interest we might've had in "wannabe" indie-produced and 3D-converted CGI....By that time, as far as we were concerned, if it wasn't Pixar, Dreamworks or Ice Age, it was ALL Delgo.

(Which I finally worked up the courage to look at on Instant Netflix, and....yeah, that one was pretty thin. )

[Dacey]

I actually think that "Terra" tends to get overrated by its fans because it bombed so badly. I thought it was alright, but despite its cool concept, there was nothing really "special" about it, and it certainly wasn't the mind-blowing "adult" animated feature that some claimed it was. I admired it, sure, but the praise has gotten a little out of control.

Meatballs a must-see. Planet 51? Not so much.

I'm curious about Igor. Might see Delgo someday just to see how bad it is.

(btw, Eric, Chimps, Delgo and Terra didn't all come and go within "the same three month" spring doldrums. "Space Chimps" opened against Batman in the summer of 2008, Delgo came out that holiday season (for a week, anyway) and Terra came out the following summer. )

[EricJ]

I'm curious about Igor. Might see Delgo someday just to see how bad it is.

Even as a complete visual intentional-plaigiarism of Nightmare Before Xmas, I so wanted Igor to turn out to be underrated-good:
Unfortunately, the plot has our hero creating a monster who, instead of watching movies on how to be Evil, ends up watching James Lipton, and now, yuk-yuk...wants to go into acting! Giving us 90 minutes of actor-community jokes ("Oh wait, can I do that again, I wasn't feeling my motivation"), upon which the central plot revolves.
Why do I spoiler such a plot? Because from the visuals and concept, you wouldn't believe me if I just said how far they were thrown out the window.
(Which is but one example of how third-party indie animateds sometimes deserve the obscurity they get, just by being lazy.)

And Delgo, again, is...pretty thin.
It's certainly earnest enough about itself, but you can see a lot of overrealistic mocap pasted onto a script that would've been common for a 2-D wannabe in the 90's.

[eddievalient]

Ignore him. Igor was great and Steve Buscemi was hilarious as the suicidal immortal rabbit. I would absolutely say that it was an underrated film. If you want to see it, then see it!

[Randall]

I second that for Igor. It's offbeat, and maybe not for everyone, but I don't regret watching it.