I don’t have anything against rats or snails, but I guess one is as gross as the others. The second Indiana Jones(Temple of Doom) featured insects, while The Last Crusade featured rats. So that compels me to think rats are ickier. But They can make a movie about whatever. If I’m not paying to see it, the subject matter is irrelevant. 
I like snails. But only cartoon snails, not in real life. There is a snail in my avatar and my signature. I don’t expect Turbo to be a good movie, even though I like snails. I don’t expect, or even really want, to be surprised by this movie. It sounds generic. That is my opinion.
Oh yeah, it never clicked in my head that you use snails a lot.
i remember seeing an episode of south park with basically the same plot as rise of the guardians.
honestly, the only ones i’m really excited about here are me & my shadow and the how to train your dragon sequel. the one dreamworks movie i ~really, really want to see is alma. the short is excellent.
i could care less about everything else.
Now that you mention it, I remember watching that episode!
If the screenshot is anything to go by, I’m interested. I’ll give the short a watch later.
definitely give it a shot, but don’t go in expecting something cute. it’s actually really creepy - which is probably one of the reasons i adore it.
Here’s the short.
I don’t know if you’ve listened to the Incredibles commentary track with Brad Bird. But the person who made this short, Rodrigo Blaas, is referred to repeatedly throughout the duration. Bird makes frequent mention about how he and another animator, whose name escapes me at the moment, were the best when it came to animated physics involving weight, especially heavy objects. Bird said when ever he and everyone else got stuck he’d shout “TO THE SPAINARDS!” and rush over to the two Iberian ex-pats for some advice.
Word is that Blaas pitched this to Pixar twice and it didn’t float. I knew someone was going to pick it up someday though. And I even knew who. Just had to wait for things to line up properly. Sure enough, GDT walks off Hobbit last year. I was thinking, “It’s only a matter of time…” It hits all of del Toro’s pleasure centers. Kids? Check! Danger? Check! Spanish? Check! Art Nouveau, innocuous situations that mask a hidden sinister reality, childhood fears realized on celluloid? Check! Check! CHECK!
Blaas had mentioned in an LA Times article that he wanted to re-imagine the concept for the feature as something like an adventure film about kids fighting against the spectre of dark forces. While still in the context of the amazing short.
But if Dreamworks is passing on this, I can’t say I blame them even if I’m really upset about it. The last feature based on a popular short fell short of expectations. Critically and financially. It’s said that Shane Acker had big plans for 9 but was blocked at every turn by Focus because his idea were thought to be too dark.
I hope that’s not the case here. Blaas is also co-director on GDT’s Trollhunters. It’s something like a mentor/protege relationship. But that’s flipped for Alma. Blaas teaches GDT about animation, and GDT teaches Blaas about the fine art of cinematic features.
You now know more than you probably ever wanted to know about this short, these dudes, and the some of the inner workings of the industry. At least in relation to these projects.
Interesting insights, aerostarmonk!
It’s a real shame Pixar didn’t pick up on this, but not entirely surprising either, since they prefer original works by their closely-guarded Brain Trust committee rather than adapting popular books or shorts.
What I’m most concerned (and equally excited) about is how Dreamworks will handle it. The studio has notoriously being driven by financial motives thanks to Dr. Katzenberg and his evil minions, but of late they’ve been recruiting a lot of creative talents (some would say, pilfering from the ‘Other Studio’) and letting the artists breathe a little. If they give as much free rein as they did to Chris Sanders for HTTYD, or allow artistic integrity to prevail as in KFP, then maybe they have a shot at doing the original source justice. 
i’m curious to see how they’re going to handle it, if they even end up doing it at all. i just want ~someone to do it. :3 it could be really neat. also realized that most of the really good dreamworks movies are based on, to some extent, pre-existing material. so this could work out quite well.
of course, i wouldn’t mind seeing pixar do it, but right now i just want them to get past these sequels coming up and get to some more original projects, whatever those may be.
i think me & my shadow is going to be really cool. i’m not sure i exactly understand in what way it’s going to combine hand-drawn and cgi animation, but looking forward to it nonetheless.
Oh, TDIT, you must watch. It’s a great short.
Aero: I remember that in the commentary, but I didn’t know that animator was the one doing Alma! Now I’m double excited.
Mr. Peabody and Sherman?
From Dreamworks?
Mr. Peabody and Sherman?
Uh… I think someone really needs to use the WABAC machine…
Have a little faith, miafka. 
Seriously guys, have some faith in DreamWorks! 
They’re aren’t as bad as you all make out. I love some of their stuff. And I am very excited about some of their upcoming productions. Put aside the whole sequels thing they want to do (3 HTTYDs? 6 Kung Fu Pandas?) and think about some of the original stuff in production.
Let’s wait until we have a bit more information on the movies before concluding on whether they are going to be rubbish or not. DreamWorks has proven that they can create masterpieces (HTTYD + Kung Fu Panda) and pretty good movies (Megamind, Monsters vs. Aliens), but we all know they’ve made some duds too (Bee Movie, Shrek 3 + 4?). But they look as if they might be turning over a new leaf, so keep an eye out!
i would prefer to see a Pixar movie about a snail than a Dreamworks one…but I might still think about that one…
I am looking forward to Rise of the Guardians, slightly The Croods…and certainly Turbo. How to Train Your Dragon 2 I would only watch if Astrid has a major role…if the second film is based off the second book in the series, I probably won’t like it…
The Pig Scrolls does not interest me, because I can already imagine what Dreamworks would do with Greek mythology.
InterWorld…uh…
Dinotrux…sounds cool.
Gil’s All Fright Diner…WHAT? A modern setting for The Emperor’s New Groove, with a vampire and a werewolf?
Good Luck Trolls…I can’t believe Pixar even used these things in Toy Story 3 as orphans…the one in the first film was nice, but a whole movie about them? Disgusting…
Boo U…a movie about a ghost that haunts a kid’s Wii U?
Truckers…a movie about gnomes, only they left the g off…
Imaginary Enemies…a movie about a kid with shizophrenia!
Trollhungers…a movie about mad Good Luck Troll collectors, who fight in a shopping mall till the whole place is destroyed just to get a Good Luck Troll dressed like Tickle-Me Elmo…
Alma - The Stepford Wives for KIDS! Kiddies will love this film about little kids that turn into dolls and can’t warn the next kid before they turn into a doll too…then these kids-now-dolls go fight the Overlord who made them so.
Maintenance - a movie about a rabbit who stands on his hind legs and works as a plumber so that he can earn enough money to feed his family of ten children…
Monkeys of Bollywood! - A movie where a Bollywood director hires monkeys as actors instead of humans, because monkeys are cheaper.
Lidsville - a boy lands in a world of living hats…actually sounds interesting.
Flawed Dogs - a movie about a world of dogs where the dogs have to buy character flaws from a store in order to survive in the wild.
Rumblewick - a candle wick learns to dance and becomes a dance teacher for other candle wicks, until his long lost brother comes home and challenges him to a wrestling match.
Wait.
…Are they planning on not releasing the Third Kung Fu Panda till 2015 at the earliest?
But they announced six films total. At that rate, the franchise won’t be done until like, almost 2030. Meanwhile, Shrek is going to have all five films done 10 years after the first one.
I know the bad implications of trying to push sequels out quickly, but if you’re going to plan that many sequels to a movie, you kind of NEED to be more efficient than that. With how fast CG technology improves, by 2030 the only people who will still be watching the first movies in the franchise will be the animation buffs, while the mainstream, who needs to care about the first film for the sequels to make money, will feel it is dated and just won’t care about the franchise anymore.
It’s a big task, but if Dreamworks wants success with such a big franchise, they need to get faster AND better at what they do at the same time. Otherwise, I’m 99% sure this is going to end badly.
(Then again, they may have the other KFP films quietly slated in sooner years, and be waiting to officially call them when the previous film does well (which KFP2 already has.)
after the disappointing performance of Kung Fu Panda 2 in the US, I think Dreamworks might reconsider the crazy idea to make 4 more sequels about Po, I mean one more could be great, but more than that…mmmmmm??? NO, it was proved that Kung Fu Panda is not the Shrek franchise they were waiting for…
The ending was screaming and hinting for a sequel though.
But KFP did amazingly well in other countries, so…
It’s still in theaters too, and we have to look back at How To Train Your Dragon: IT had a mediocre opening weekend, but kept making surprising amounts in later weekends because word of mouth. And ta-da, it has a sequel.
Also… I never thought I’d say this about Dreamworks, but I think if they have an overarching plot planned (they do) that six decent films if possible. We see series of six books and long video game series all the time that stay good. Just because it hasn’t been done with film yet doesn’t mean it isn’t possible.
at this time Dragon had softer drops per day, and it also made more money at this exact time, and more important KFP 2 is a SUMMER release, just take a look:
PANDA 2 - Day 20: $130,704,079 (Opening Weekend: $47,656,302 ) SEQUEL
HTTYD - Day 20: $137,352,994 (Opening Weekend: $43,732,319 )
boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=d … panda2.htm
boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=d … dragon.htm
TBH, I don’t think that much is enough of a difference to derail it. Not to mention, you didn’t count in international sales. With them, we’re at $345,630,461. The film had a lower budget than HTTYD too.
Plus KFP isn’t a stand alone thing; it’s a franchise. It’s got TV specials, DVD tie ins, an upcoming tv series, etc. Things like that, and how much money they make, also come into affect. DVD sales will be important too. Any toys that are made. Etc. And the critics were geeking out, too.
I just think it’s too early to count it out. Too many variables. Too weird.