Thursday, March 09, 2006

CG Feature Glut?

I just noticed that a few features have shifted release dates, the most notable being Disney's Meet the Robinsons bumping from Dec. 15 to next March 30. March 30, 2007 is also the recently announced release date of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles CG feature being animated by Imagi in Hong Kong (they animated DreamWorks' Father of the Pride). Also, the much anticipated Footfight! slipped from 11/17 to spring of '07. How will we all be able to stand the excitement of waiting another 4-6 months to see that one?! So, this year we've already had Hoodwinked (technically an '05 release), Curious George, and Doogal. By my reckoning, here's what we have to look forward to the rest of the year: 3/31 - Ice Age: The Meltdown (Blue Sky) 4/14 - The Wild (Core) 5/19 - Over the Hedge (DreamWorks) 6/9 - Cars (Pixar) 7/7 - A Scanner Darkly (I know, it's roto, not animation...) 7/21 - Monster House (Sony/Columbia) 8/4 - The Ant Bully (DNA) 9/15 - Yankee Irving (IDT) 9/29 - Open Season (Sony Pictures Animation) 10/6 - The Barnyard (Omation) -- UPDATE: apparently now 7/28 11/3 - Flushed Away (Aardman/DreamWorks) 11/17 - Happy Feet (Animal Logic) December is now open, and the partially animated Charlotte's Web has the 12/15 date. I'm sure I left out some limited-release anime films. Let me know and I'll add whatever I missed, or correct anything that's wrong. Right now the above list is notable for being virtually all CG. Many have been saying that this is the year of the CG glut, and that the sky is about to start falling. I think it's the year that CG animation gets treated the same as live action -- there will be plenty of it available, and the films that really grab audiences will succeed, regardless of what else is out there. And, conversely, the junk (and there is some junk in there) will disappear faster than you can say Ishtar.

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