A Sea of Animated Movies, and Nothing to Watch

Posted on October 3, 2006

If you're starting to think that you've never seen so many animated kids movies in your life, you'd be correct The New York Times examines the current glut of computer-generated animated movies. Now that computer animation is common, there are too many of the movies being made. And audiences are starting to get bored with all the talking animal movies, that all have essentially the same plot.

This summer's "The Wild," from the Walt Disney Company, proved anything but for moviegoers, bringing in only $37 million at the domestic box office. The bigger disappointment was "The Ant Bully," produced by the actor Tom Hanks and distributed by Warner Brothers Entertainment. That movie's powerful ant wizard could muster only enough magic to garner $27 million.
By contrast, the debut of "Open Season," the tale of a defiant grizzly bear and feisty mule deer who battle hunters, brought in $23 million over the weekend for Sony Pictures Entertainment, putting it in first place. But only the coming weeks will tell whether it will be widely embraced by moviegoers.

Another new recent animated film is Barnyard. The Times says it made around $69 million in the U.S. Julia Pistor, the executive producer of the film, says, "I think audiences are saying, 'I've seen a lot of computer animation and it's not so special anymore. In that case it's a lot harder for a movie to break through."

The article says that movie execs are churning these things out because tired grandparents need something to do with their grandkids when their ritalin wears out. That makes as much sense as anything: but we'd like to see some more originality in the animated films. Because the last few have been big bores.

ANIMATED