Post
by Jpcase » January 12th, 2015, 11:17 am
Yeah, I know. Still, it strikes me as odd. I've seen about 15 films from 2014, none of them bad, but Dragon would probably fall dead last for me. I tend to enjoy heavily dramatic films myself, and it frustrates me that they're so scarce in today's animation scene, but Dragon's tone felt all over the map. One moment had solid dramatic storytelling, the next moment was marred by goofy, anachronistic humor that - unlike say, Mushu in Mulan - fell flat. It felt like the directors desperately wanted to make an intense, PG-13-style action film, but kept having to remind themselves at the last minute that they were, after all, making it at DreamWorks. Dragon could have been great had it been done by another country or in live-action, but there are just too many rules that you have to play by when doing animation in the US.
I have to say, I also remember there being something really off about the story pacing. My impression after seeing the film wasn't dissimilar to how I felt about Man of Steel; just - too much action in the latter half.
All that having been said, I should reiterate, I don't dislike the film. It's just that looking back on the Oscar's picks for Best Animated Feature, all of them made sense to me on some level. I mean, I'm not a die-hard Happy Feet fan or anything, but I can't think of anything else from that year that stands out in a major way. Brave was worse than Dragon IMHO, but I can buy into the theory that voters were blindly going with Pixar that year. If Dragon wins, then it will be the first time that I'll feel like the voters just flat-out saw a different movie than I did.