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Well, something like this happened with "Antz" and "A Bug's Life." Disney fired someone who knew key plot stuff, and Dreamworks hired him. Antz was made and released before a "A Bug's Life," and I, personally, like Antz better.
Posts: 46 | Registered: Apr 2005
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I think that story makes Antz seem like that guy's personal story with Disney. Going against the hive mentality type thing.
This doesn't really add any new info about The Wild except that the release date is April 14th, but at least is shows that it exists.
Posts: 1947 | Registered: Aug 2002
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I saw some "stills" from The Wild a few months ago that made Hoodwinked look like Fantasia. But yes, from what I heard, The Wild was in development long before Dreamworks started on Madagascar, so it's possible that this went the other way, or that hey, maybe it's just a coincidence after all.
And since I just found out my new mentor for this semester worked on Bug's Life, I know where my loyalties lie.
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Entrapment/The Thomas Crown Affair Tombstone/Wyatt Earp Platoon/Full Metal Jacket Christopher Columbus/1492 Without Limits/Prefontaine The Truman Show/EdTV Dr. Strangelove/Failsafe
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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As long as it's direct to video, I don't mind. I don't recognize those as real, so they don't count.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Why do they pursist in making these direct to video movies in the first place? Dang is that annoying. That company is going downhill.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Because, believe it or not, there is actually relatively more money now in direct-to-video sales than movie theaters. It costs less to manufacture and distribute on movies that can be bought once and watched over than pay current theater prices on a one time viewing.
Posts: 2207 | Registered: Oct 2003
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DTV movies are pretty close to pure profit. They suck, but kids eat them up. It's not what made Disney great, but it pays the bills for some other things that I like better.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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I saw the preview for The Wild before Fun With Dick and Jane. It looks horrible, not to mention like a cheap ripoff of the bulk of the idea for Madagascar.
As for Bambi II, it looks funny. Captain Picard is the voice of the Prince of the Forest.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Rabid Newz: Well, something like this happened with "Antz" and "A Bug's Life." Disney fired someone who knew key plot stuff, and Dreamworks hired him. Antz was made and released before a "A Bug's Life," and I, personally, like Antz better.
1. Disney fired someone who "knew key plot stuff". 2. Antz was released before A Bug's Life.
Both those may be true but I think it's highly unlikely they had anything to do with one another. First of all, there is almost no comparison between the plots of the two movies, or their styles (other than both being CGI). They are both about insects. I think if there was a corporate espionage plot by Dreamworks all they needed to do was lean out their window and listen to the general buzz that is a constant in Hollywood.
Personally I liked A Bug's Life much more than Antz. One reason is that I dislike the style of Antz and similar movies like Shark Tale (which was released "suspiciously" close to Finding Nemo). In both of those movies, the fact that the characters were bugs/fish was incidental. They were even drawn to look quite a bit like the actors who did the voices. The plots practically could have been lifted whole and set in NYC with human actors. The humor was mainly from dressing humans with human motives in bug suits and fish suits.
A Bug's Life and Finding Nemo on the other hand started with original characters and personalities brought to life by their voice actors, but not overwhelmed by them (or worse, based on them). The plots evolved more from the (albeit rudimentary) conception of the nature of the bugs/fishes, but anthropomorphized. The humor largely came naturally from the plot and characters and much less so from human conceits crammed into the bug's (or fish's) world.
In Antz it was "Woody Allen is a bug" (ha ha). In A Bug's Life it was more "These bugs are a lot like us" (ha ha). I find the latter more satifying in terms of humor and plot than the former. YMMV.
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