Cartoons -> Real Life, what they're doing to movies these days

okay, is it me or are all of the cartoons we know and love getting turned into movies played by real life actors? not that i'm complaining because i love a lot of the movies but now they're just getting silly! i mean, dragonball?! yes, dragonball, the anime with saiyins with glowing orange hair. and who's playing the buffed out green alien? spike from buffy. now do you get it? i mean, scooby doo, transformers, sin city, fat albert... even speed racer and alvin, i could go along with but now, i think, they're just taking it too far. it's amusing, though, really. i definitely plan on going to go see dragonball when it comes out next year. i mean, i grew up with the show and LOVED it and i would still watch it with my little bros if it was on but i'm worried. taking something like dragonball and making it real life? i don't want it to be ruined, you know?

is it just me or has hollywood lost its creativity? we're stealing from japan's film stash, we're making every book a movie, and now we're reinvinting cartoons. it's curious but at least we're not watching the same plot line over and over and over again, right?

not at all a rant, just an observation. i thought i'd see what other people think.

Yes. Hollywood IS fresh out of ideas.

In fact, a live version Akira is supposed to be made, set in Manhattan. My beef with this is, the ORIGINAL is just fine (as it is with most of the movies made, such a J-Horror and such), and personally, a lot of the elements of Akira are going to be removed so that it can be sold to even the people whom I consider as being the lowest common denominator.

It's going to become another torture/gore porn.

I was speaking in a panel about that today as well - Hollywood gets these films, and basically recasts them, even though the originals are just fine. Just as recent and just as good, if not better. The only thing that it's missing is the constant screaming and the violence in some cases. It's so sad that people can't be bothered to learn about other cultures or at least SKIM over the subtitles. (But then again, I can read subtitles and watch the film pretty well. Not everyone can)

Not just that, but The Departed won an Oscar for Film of the Year, when ultimately, the original, Infernal Affairs, was a million times better.

This post has been edited by antisocialist87 on Apr 2 2008, 05:53 AM

yeah, i didn't even know that the ring and the grudge were japanese films until i saw the originals on HBO. WAY better. and that's how it works. people don't know these things and then go to see the bastardized american versions and think they're so great!

and that's another thing i don't understand. what's with all of the swearing and gore and nudity? i mean, i cuss like a sailor but that doesn't mean that i think every film needs to have it anymore... and, i'm sorry, but i'm not interested in seeing someone having sex only to get killed right afterwards. unless they're forced to put that in as an abstinence thing, i don't get the point. it's why i loved hannibal rising so much. there was little swearing, little blood and gore, little lewdness but still [imo] a good film.

so dub over the films! you don't always need subtitles with foreign films. that's what i don't get, too. but... whatever. it's all about the money, i think.

Yeah. I think ultimately the demise of good film making is due to the demise of originality and the absolute need to cater to too many people.

Too much sex makes the film into something similar to a porn for me. All sex, violence, cussing, blowing crap up and crap to make you go "OOH, AHH" usually means that there is no substantial plot. And I would think that with some of these directors, thinking up a plot must be pretty damn difficult with all this crap you see in movies that I mentioned above.

Thinking is not encouraged. However, with J-horror, in some cases, it requires you to think. Akira made you do that. Too many movies now omit the mental factor and turn it into "YAY GORE! HAAA~AY!"

definitely. horror films just don't scare me anymore. if i, at all, in a film sit there and go 'ew, that's gross', the film was not good. i love the psychological thrillers because of that. like secret window or hide and seek. i know, not the best of examples but i haven't seen a lot of movies, lately and few that come out are decent, anymore.

it's as if people don't like movies that aren't rated R anymore. my friend went to go see disturbia [also a decent film] and came back to me to say 'i was impressed for a PG-13 film, it was really good'. my response? what should the rating have to do with the quality of the film? i then proceeded to tell her that it was because there was little swearing, nudity and gory violence that it was a good film.

what i don't understand most about taking an anime and making it into a movie, though, is that a lot of animes are FILLED with unbelievable things that would never happen in real life. like the amount of blood you would see spurt from a severed head or energy balls flying from your hands.

i like the underground films that, when i talk about them, make people go 'what?' like donnie darko, pan's labyrinth, green street, boondock saints, everything is illuminated, prisoner of the mountain... they're films that only select groups of people have seen [that last one being rare considering it's russian] because they don't really get played in theaters and, therefore, they're often over looked. original films with brilliant ideas and they get nothing.

The Departed's one of my favorite movie and it was well deserved of that Oscar for Best Picture. I'll disagree and will say that the two films were equally great; both had a stellar, high profile cast who performed well, and of course the storyline was nearly identical and we both knew how good that was :p. I can't see why you can complain about The Departed since the film did leave proper credits to Infernal Affairs :p.

This post has been edited by Mako on Apr 2 2008, 07:22 AM

i think that's the point though, mako. forgive me if i'm misinformed because i've never heard of internal affairs but did it win any awards? that might be part of antisocial's point. on top of that, it goes back to the original topic in saying that hollywood copies everything that's already been done, puts a new label and face on it and says it's a great new film. even films that i own, like the mummy, are nothing more than remakes. sometimes, those remakes are better, sometimes not. each person has their own likes and dislikes so what one person says is great, the other could say is rubbish.

The Departed's one of my favorite movie and it was well deserved of that Oscar for Best Picture. I'll disagree and will say that the two films were equally great; both had a stellar, high profile cast who performed well, and of course the storyline was nearly identical and we both knew how good that was :p. I can't see why you can complain about The Departed since the film did leave proper credits to Infernal Affairs :p.

Not too many people know or even knew about Infernal Affairs before, during and after The Departed won its Oscar. The Oscar people didn't even know that it was an HK film itself, opting to call it "A Japanese Film" onstage. (They eventually recanted this statement, but my point still stands)

That's not too proper.

I like The Departed as well, but what was wrong with the original that it couldn't get a theatrical run in the US?

This post has been edited by antisocialist87 on Apr 2 2008, 07:29 PM

It seems to be the "trendy" thing to do to promote fantasy films. I dislike this intensely, because a lot of authors are ripping off JK Rowling and Garth Nix, probably hoping to get their book made into a film, to get even more easy money. I prefer original films with a bit of fantasy, but nothing too outlandish.

to be perfectly honest, i don't mind making books into films so long as they stick to the book as best as possible. like LOTR. i loved them but the last two strayed from the actual story a bit too much for my liking and emphasized things that had no major role in the books. i'm looking forward to the second chronicles of narnia, too. still, i just can't understand why the stories must be made into movies, now. have we lost all creativity that we must turn to works already in print rather than creating our own?

another film to add to the list of cartoons turned into movies: ironman

SERIOUSLY NOW PEOPLE! lol i could go on a whole rant about not sticking to books when made into films but i'll avoid that, shall i?

Methinks it's because people are becoming too lazy to read the actual books, but they can sit and watch a movie, then claim they read the book. Which, if we look at such book-movies as Eragon, proves that they are mo-rons.

-digresses from same rant as nadja-

The writers for big-budget movies are becoming lazy when it comes to adapting, but if you look at indie films, there are actually some fresh ideas out there. Shocking concept, I know.

And I'm not that much against book-to-films when they're done right, like Narnia, where there were only, what, *five* changes out of the whole book?

haha yush! but that's just it. the indie films don't get enough credit and fly under the radar. i never learn about them unless there's an actor in them that i like or if i see them on DVD in the store while i'm browsing the indie section.

Ironman isn't much of a surprise. It's just this years new Marvel-Movie. X-Men, Spiderman, Fantastic Four, Ghost Rider, Daredevil, Elektra: They put one or two out every year.

Astro Boy's gonna get a movie in 2009, though. But it's going to be animated...

Yeah, it seems everything's up for grabs as Hollywood movie material. I wonder why there aren't many video-game adapations, though. A Gears of War movie's due for 2009, Metal Gear, EverQuest, SoulCalibur, Spyro the Dragon, Castlevania, Warcraft... There's a bunch that have movies "in production", but I'll bet you that none of them will become a decent movie because they're going to be done poorly. The only decent video-game adaptation was Tomb Raider... though FFVII: Advent Children didn't have a theatrical release.

But, in return, we could talk about all the half-baked games that come out following a movie...

I guess I'm just in agreement that Hollywood's gotten fairly weak when it comes to original screenplays... quantity speaking.

Actually I think they're really getting more credit and receiving more attention after the two last academy awards had many indies as candidates of major indications. Not the attention they should had, but still, they're growing.

Add the fact that advent children didn't used real actors, was a sequel, and made by the same people who made the game instead of a third party makes him different enough from half-assed adaptations.

And Yeah, the last Hollywood movie that I got excited to watch was 300, coincidently a adaptation of a comic... but anyway, really well done and made by someone who knows his job well. In general, Hollywood is currently with really weak movie releases.

Two words guys.

Uwe Boll.