Catching up on Trailers

So, there's a few trailers for some animated movies that have caught my eye, and I thought I'd take a minute today to share them.

First up, the latest from Blue Sky Studios, Rio. Between the titans that are Pixar and Dreamworks, Blue Sky is trying really, really hard to play in the same leage. And they're getting close. Their biggest cash cow, the Ice Age franchise, shows how they're developing in their animation quality, but they still have some ways to go before they reach a Pixar-level of storytelling.

Some in the know say that Rio is going to be their long-awaited break into the big leagues. The director, Carlos Saldanha, is Brazillian, so this film has been a labour of love for him. While the animation looks spectacular, the plot sounds fairly routine. A rare bird lives in a zoo in the USA, and believes that he is the last of his kind. When a news report says that a female of his species has just been discovered in Brazil, he flies south to meet her, and has all kinds of wacky misadventures as he experiences the wild for the first time.




Next up, we have Legend of the Guardians. This is one of thos collaberations that came out of left field. Seriously. From the makers of Happy Feet and the director of 300. And what did they give us? 300 Owls. An epic tale of a small village under seige by an evil army, so a group of young warriors heads off on a quest to find some mythical warriors to help them out. And it's all owls. Apparently, this is based on a best-selling children's book. While this trailer does look spellbinding, the images of owls in battle armor does look some what ridiculous to me. They should have skipped the photorealism and cartooned it up a little more.



And lastly, we come to The Smurfs. As you know, fair readers of this blog, I've been mildly amused by this live-action movie version of the classic cartoon. When I first heard it would be from the director of Beverly Hills Chihuahua, I was frightened. But when I saw the first pictures of Hank Azaria as Gargamel, I though that maybe, just maybe, there would be enough goofy charm to make a halfway decent film.

Well, the first trailer just went online, and I'm weeping for humanity. A little bit of my childhood died when I saw this.