If Darkstar is making editorials, I can't be worse!
When the Sly Cooper movie trailer came out, the discussion about it’s animation began. Most people were angry, that the characters’ models are “ugly”, or “too different”. But to me, there was more to it. So, without further ado, let’s begin.
Best option?
I am often pretty annoyed by the bull… ahem, drivel that developers were trying to make me belive in on PS Blog (like James Stevenson claiming that Ratchet’s design in the movie teaser was ToD design…). That’s why I got angry after reading this on Sly announcement post: “When we met with PlayStation to discuss the film last year, we proposed that the CG art style would transfer best in the leap to the big screen.” The first thing I thought was “WHAT!?”. To me, there was only one and only way the Sly movie could be animated – A FREAKIN’ 2D ANIMATION! What’s wrong with these filmmakers? Wasn’t series’ cel-shading, all those “poofs” and “whams”, the comic book stylized cutscenes obvious? Sly Cooper games were a homage to comic books and old cartoons, how come the movie is CG? But then it hit me – it is not just the best way for Sly, it is the only possible way. It’s almost 20 years since Toy Story landed in cinemas and after all these years CG animation finally dominated the market – the last big classic 2D animation film in cinemas was “Winnie the Pooh” from 2011… And guess what? It earned $44,692,846 (less than any Pixar movie ever made). The classic 2D animation is dead – it doesn’t pay, so nobody makes it anymore (except for TV shows, but those are not cinema standards)… outside of Japan. Okay, when even such a big star like Winnie the Pooh can’t gross that much in 2D, I get that Sly’s got to be CG, fine. But that doesn’t explain…
That artstyle!
Okay, here’s the main problem – the artstyle is unfitting. This is a story about a raccoon thief and his pals, a turtle and a hippo pulling heists all around the world. The concept itself is not realistic, so why are they trying to make it look realistic!? Does it have something to do with the fact that Kevin Munroe directed TMNT? Look at the animations like “Hotel Transylvania” – they’re CG, yet they look like a classic cartoon. Why can’t Sly look like that? From what I see, Rainmaker really is a “talented team of animators”, so why can’t they put the effort they’re putting to make it look realistic… to make it more cartoonish! It is a homage to old cartoons and comic books, gosh! It’s not only that (yes, I will say that) – Sly and Murray are ugly and (that should appeal to the filmmakers) not appealing. Look at that picture below.
Yeah, I’m sure parents will think “Oh, that must be a fun movie our whole family can watch” after seeing that on a billboard… No! It won’t interest parents, it won’t interest their children (it could make some of them have nightmares actually). Sure, technically it’s well-made, but that doesn’t change the fact it doesn’t look nice. Worst of all, I’m afraid it won’t change – it’s not R&C movie where they tweaked Ratchet’s model and everything was fine – here, everything needs tweaking! But hey, let’s hope for the best… while we still can.
Go on Heather, defend this animation if you dare!
But as I said, in my opinion this arstyle fails to appeal to anyone. And "teens and adults"? If there are teens and adults that could get interested in a Sly Cooper movie, they are already an animation fans.
