Forum - View topicNEWS: Flash: Advent Children is Popular
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Keonyn
 Subscriber Posts: 5567 Location: Coon Rapids, MN |
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Yeah, because nothing the US has created is of any quality. It's really a simple matter of styles, while AC goes for a realism style most US studios follow the more toon style because that's what sells here, it's really common sense. Now style doesn't detract from technical achievements, as in while the models aren't as realistic or even meant to be as realistic in a movie like the Incredibles their movements certainly are as AC looked nice but the movement and animation itself wasn't. Take a look at The Incredibles surroundings and such and you'll easily notice the realism potential is there and exists, matter of fact I'd say The Incredibles did a better job with the surroundings than AC. Besides, realism and detail doesn't really matter in the end if the story it tells is a joke. A movie, animation included, is simply a sum of all its parts. Animation is a single component, that animation is used to tell a story and if that story is poor the rest really doesn't matter. I can make the most gourmet meal ever with the best ingredients, but if one of my main ingredients is sewage then it's still going to taste like s**t. Now also consider this, you really think America hasn't been innovating CGI and human rendering? Seriously now? You really think that because you haven't seen it in an animated film? Because you see it all the time, in TV and in movies, it's called CG in live action and any animator can tell you it's a lot harder to animate a giant ape going all out against some dinosaurs than to produce an animated feature that doesn't need to integrate with live components. The US doesn't have the huge market for it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist, it's just used differently. Seriously, the whole Japan fan superiority complex is as tiring as it is laughable when it's taken to such an extreme. |
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Nagisa
Moderator
 Posts: 6128 Location: Atlanta-ish, Jawjuh |
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To be blunt: Japan and Squenix ain't innovating shit. The only thing that truly stood out in Advent Children from a technical standpoint was its character modeling, and I believe ILM and WETA beat them to that by a good several years with all the work they've done in The Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park, Star Wars, et al. And that "cute fish movie?" Do you have ANY idea how much innovation actually went into that? Pixar practically rewrote the book on doing water effects in CG. Not to mention Finding Nemo destroys Advent Children in its writing, character animation, storytelling, and...hell, pretty much every aspect, let's face it. That "cute fish movie" far outclasses Fanboy Wankfest VII, I'm sorry to tell you. |
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scrapps
Posts: 43 |
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Thank you Keonyn and Nagisa! Ever since I saw the movie, I've been trying to tell people how the animation in AC isn't that good. Most people seem to think that because the character models are realistic it must be high quality. But as soon as there is any action apart from walking, the characters lose all weight. |
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Kuririn
 Posts: 24 Location: PR |
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I agree. But it seems that just helped the cause. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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Ugh, these are two false statements. 1. Final Fantasy has a MUCH BIGGER fanbase than just anime fans who obsessively download fansubs. The game sold millions and millions of copies and appeals to a much broader audience than just fans. Anime fans buying the DVD helped sales but are not the ones to thank for making it a success. 2. Your conclusion that anime fans stealing the movie months before it came out "helped" the sales of the DVD is self-serving unprovable nonsense. You have absolutely nothing to back that up at all. |
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SSJ Gohan 64
Posts: 223 Location: Silver Spring, Maryland |
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Wow, the movie sold more here than in Japan(by only 300,000, but still). BTW, how long has the movie been out in Europe? If it hasn't been out that long, then those sales are fine. If not, well it bombed.
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Mad_Triad
Posts: 29 Location: United Kingdom |
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It was released around the same time as the American release, if you want me to be precise it was released a day earlier. |
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bob_loblaw
Posts: 229 Location: Tanning in Hell |
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Well, I'm not too surprised by the figures. And I love that it pokes holes in all the fanwanked theories that Sony delaying the R1 DVD would haved crippled sales because all the "real fans" will have already "seen" it. Uh-huh. Yeah. Whatever.
I think AC was a flashy eye-candy. It's fun to watch, as long as you don't go digging deeper for anything more than what it is. I just hope that Squenix's next CG film will be an original. Something we've never seen before and that's not a sequel/prequel/side-story. A story that's not beholden to any pre-existing property. |
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fuchikoma
 Posts: 36 |
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I'm definitely not what you'd call a Square fanboy - I played mostly through FFVII before my savefile was lost. I've tried most other FF games but never got into them.
Advent Children was everything I'd hoped Spirits Within would be, and then some. It was an awesome action movie. Looking at the FF games that have come out in the last few years, I think anyone who's disappointed by the plot wasn't expecting a Final Fantasy movie... |
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Nagisa
Moderator
Posts: 6128 Location: Atlanta-ish, Jawjuh |
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So you're saying that discarding the uttermost basics of story construction and relying on a cheap succession of "money shots" as a substitute for plot and character development is a trait of the Final Fantasy franchise at large? Damn, even I don't hate on the series that much. 
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Pop-Art Samurai
Posts: 62 |
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I don't know what you all people's problem is, I know that bunches of animators, in the US and elsewhere, liked AC and thought the animation was good.
Can you say "intentional"? Lest we forget, it takes place in a world where people can summon magical creatures out of thin air, wield swords that would weigh about 300 pounds as though they were bamboo and cast magic with the ease I'd sneeze with. I'm not going to say it's a great movie because, obviously, it has flaws. However, I get really tired of seeing people bash it so much, in my opinion, it doesn't deserve it. |
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Nagisa
Moderator
Posts: 6128 Location: Atlanta-ish, Jawjuh |
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Oh, the animation isn't bad, no. BUT at the same time, it's not as great as people profess it to be. Facts are facts, the animation is rather stiff a great deal of the time, the lip-synch is nightmarish, and a lot of real issues with motion and timing are hastily covered up by fancy camera movements.
It's not bad, but it's hardly of any noteworthy excellence, either. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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Guh? What, in English? That's because it's all very closely designed to match the Japanese word for word. |
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CaliSerenity
 Posts: 36 |
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Probably 'cause eye-candy is a matter of opinion. Personally, I didn't like Toy Story or Finding Nemo, but loved the Incredibles & Monsters, Inc. With Pixar, it seems I pick and choose depending on the story, and if the story doesn't click with me, then I don't like it. S-E, on the other hand, the art is something I fall in love with and can stare at for a long time regardless of what's happening plot-wise. 
With technicality like the lipflaps and stuff, um, kinda like how it goes that anime has less frames-per-second that American cartoons and pan-&-scans are more prevalent and what have you, but anime artwork appeals to me much more. To me, S-E's artwork is as great as I profess it to be simply 'cause I like it - it's aesthetically pleasing to me on a much higher level.
I guess people can talk about technicality and stuff, but if I like something better, then there's nothing else after that. I could write a 5 page paragraph discussing what specific things I like about it and what aspects of other type of animations and designs (like Pixar's) I don't find appealing, but it's pointless 'cause it goes back to it being a matter of personal taste. |
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Nagisa
Moderator
Posts: 6128 Location: Atlanta-ish, Jawjuh |
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Either language. Maybe not "nightmarish" (your reaction prompted me to take a second look and it's not quite that bad), but...hell, my first time screwing around with blend shapes in Maya produced a more convincing result than what we see in this professional, top-dollar feature film.  Even in Japanese, the lip synch is stiff and oddly-timed. Maybe it's nitpicky, but seeing the mouth make a shape that's coming a couple syllables late is quite distracting once you actually start watching for it.
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