The Other Side of Animation: Cam's Eye View's Animation Reviews & Editorials

(If you like what you see, go to camseyeview.biz to see the rest of my work. If you want to, consider contributing to my Patreon at patreon.com/camseyeview. Thanks for reading, and enjoy the review!) When you are an animation studio, and you are putting out your first big animated feature, it’s rather daunting. Reel FX, the Dallas-based studio behind today’s film, Free Birds , has experience with straight-to-DVD stuff or animated shorts, but the rules change when you have to move from one type of animation to another. I will talk more about this in the future with The Book of Life since we are here to talk about their first big CGI animated feature, Free Birds . Directed by Jimmy Hayward, who has worked on multiple Pixar films, and was the unfortunate director of Jonah Hex , Free Birds was released on November 1 st of 2013. It was critically panned, but made its money back in spades, which the film should consider itself lucky that it did, due to the fact that it came out a few weeks...

(If you like what you see, go to camseyeview.biz to see more of my work. If you want to, consider supporting my Patreon at patreon.com/camseyeview. Enjoy the review!) WARNING/PARENTAL HEADS UP!: There are major adult and sexual themes. Definitely do not watch this with kids that are younger. Viewer’s discretion is advised. Enjoy the review! Yup, today we are going to dive into the creative, albeit crazy mind of one of the animation industry’s biggest names, Ralph Bakshi, and his first animated film, Fritz the Cat released in 1972. Directed by Ralph Bakshi himself, and based off the comic series by cartoonist Robert Crumb, Fritz the Cat is infamous for being the first animated film aimed directly at adults with the now-defunct X rating. During that period of time, the film was rather controversial with the themes it was covering. It was a financial success with a budget of one million dollars, and raked in a total of $90 million, making it one of the most profitable money-making indie ...

(If you like what you see, go to camseyeview.biz for more of my work. If you want to, consider contributing to my Patreon at patreon.com/camseyeview. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the article!) Welcome to the first edition of “In Defense Of…” This is where I write an editorial covering a couple of positive elements of Disney, Dreamworks, or Pixar films that were negatively reviewed or downright panned by the critics and audiences. Pop quiz time! What do you get when you have a big budget, take seven years to make a movie, and then release it in 1985? Well, you get what is widely known to be Disney’s biggest flop in terms of an animated film, The Black Cauldron . Most people these days are more familiar with the huge financial and critical Disney flops like John Carter and The Lone Ranger , two infamously horrible movies that did incredibly poorly at the box office. Not United Passions flop, but it did so badly that it was beaten out by The Care Bears Movie . Think about tha...

(If you like what you see, you can go to camseyeview.biz for more of my work. If you want to, consider supporting my Patreon on patreon.com/camseyeview. Hope you enjoy the article!) After 10 reviews of nothing but European and American animated films, I am finally talking about one of my favorite animated films, Memories , from the land of the rising sun, ramen, anime, and Godzilla. This series of short films is by famous animator Katushiro Otomo, the mind behind famous and popular animated films/manga like Akira , Neo Tokyo , Robot Carnival , Steamboy , and Short Peace . The three short films that we are going to review today are based on short stories that Otomo himself has written. Let’s dive in and check out these three individual short films. The first film up is Magnetic Rose , directed by Koji Morimoto, who is also well known for his work on games like Catherine, and anime like First Squad , Mind Game , and one of the segments in The Animatrix . The screenplay was helmed by on...

(If you like what you see, you can go to camseyeview.biz for more of my work. If you want to, consider supporting my Patreon on patreon.com/camseyeview. Hope you enjoy the article!) Welcome back to Hit or Miss Trailer Predictions. This is a series of first impression articles covering the newest trailers on animated films, and breaking down the good or bad that the trailer offers. When you watch a trailer for a movie, you want to make sure what you see is easily translatable to the normal moviegoer. You want them to know the set-up, the characters, and maybe throw in a few jokes/action sequences to fill up the trailer. Basically, you don’t want to confuse the moviegoer with what kind of story your movie is telling. Apparently, no one told that to the individual who edited the English trailer for Capture the Flag , a Spanish-animated film being directed by Enruique Gato, who you might know as the director of Tad the Lost Explorer . Definitely off to a good start, aren’t we? (Once again,...

(If you like what you see, you can go to camseyeview.biz for more of my work. If you want to, consider supporting my Patreon on patreon.com/camseyeview. Hope you enjoy the article!) The absolute worst sin a movie can do is a combination of two things. The first part of the sin is not enveloping you in the film’s world. We watch movies to escape reality and to be enveloped/entertained by the story and the characters in front of us. The second part of this sin is wasting the time of the viewer. No one wants to go into a theater, buy a ticket, obtain some overpriced snacks, sit down for the movie, and walk out thinking “that was a waste of my time and money.”   Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return is a prime example of said sins. I can’t just sum it up in one review. I mean, I can and will, but let’s start with a little history about the movie. This film was developed by Summertime Entertainment, and an animation studio in India called Prana Studios. Prana is a studio that gets a lot of outso...

(If you like what you see, you can go to camseyeview.biz for more of my work. If you want to, consider supporting my Patreon on patreon.com/camseyeview. Hope you enjoy the article!) Welcome to Hit or Miss Trailer Predictions. This is a series of first impression articles covering the newest trailers on animated films, and breaking down the good or bad that the trailer offers. For whatever reason, animation studios want to take that next big leap into making  fully featured films, even if they really, and I mean really, don’t have the man power, talent, technology, writers, or budget to do so. I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but when you see something like the trailer for Splash Entertainment’s Norm of the North , directed by Trevor Wall, and set to release on January 15 th , 2016, what else are you going to think but “boy, this looks terrible” and other probably harsher variations of that same comment? This is probably going to be one of the biggest flops of 2016. Sure,...

(If you like what you see, check out camseyeview.biz for my other work. If you would like to, consider supporting my Patreon on patreon.com/camseyeview. Thanks for checking out this site and enjoy the review!) When I started The Other Side of Animation, I was making sure I did more good than bad animated movies. I wanted this to be a positive experience. However, knowing how the internet and people apparently love articles and reviews ripping things to itsy bitsy pieces in a negative/logically hate-filled rage, I made it a rule that I would only review bad animated movies if I personally thought they were downright terrible, with very few if any thing redeemable about them. This is where Wizart Animation’s The Snow Queen fits that rule. Originally released in 2012 in Russia, and 2013 everywhere else, The Snow Queen is a Russian CGI animated film based off of the fairy tale of the same name. It was produced by Wizart Animation, a company located in Moscow. On release, of course, its h...