CGI has
flooded the children’s film market. I
know it. You know it. I
know it. You know it. Opinions are invalid. It is now fact and
common knowledge. Name me one new
animated movie that WASN’T CGI that was in theaters last year….. And don’t say
Beauty and the Beast 3D. That’s not
new.
Drawing a
blank? Only coming up with Arrietty? Can’t think of any more? Well that’s because there wasn’t. Ghibli's The Secret World of Arrietty (American title) was the only new traditional animated
feature that was released last year in the US. I still
need to see it.
As you can
see, out of the several new kids’ movies, only one was animated. It’s good to see stop motion is still alive
but the CGI swill pours forth ever flowing.
Enter 2013
and what do we have to start the year with?
Escape From Planet Earth.
Starring Brendan Fraser, Rob Corddry, Ricky Gervais, Jessica Alba, Sarah
Jessica Parker, and many more.
I know. I know.
I rolled my eyes too. Lots of
voices I don’t know and most I don’t care about (except Shatner). At first glance I assumed this to be DreamWorks
produced but turns out it’s not (I’ll get to more on that in a minute). Once again, for the 4th time that
I know of in the last decade, we have another CGI movie featuring aliens. This, Mars Needs Moms, Planet 51, Monsters
vs. Aliens….. Chicken Little, I guess if
you want to throw that in too. I bet
some of you have forgotten some of those titles or never heard of them before. Not surprising. I forgot them too. I’m sure this one will be forgotten too by
the time another alien flick rolls out.
Now before
anyone starts thinking “You don’t like CGI stuff. You’re just terrible”[/gaffigan], hear me out for a
moment. I love Pixar, I adore the
animation of Pocoyo, and one of my most favorite television series of all time
is CGI (some may have already figured out which show I’m talking about by
studying the ShaBlam! logo). When I hate
on CGI, it’s of the overuse of the medium.
When I see things like Shrek spinoffs and Ice Age #19uhleventy12, I get
perturbed by the lack of funny. When I
see things like these alien movies roll around I breathe a heavy sigh because I
know most people are going to forget about them. What was the point to even make them? To me, the medium seems too easily accessible
and studios shove out quick flicks with celebrities shoved in for a few quick
bucks that they know they’re going to get from parents that have no actual
options when they take their kids to the theaters. I really wonder what goes on behind the scenes
of making these movies. Do the creative
teams get any say so at all?
Speaking of production,
now is the time to talk about the studio that made Escape From Planet
Earth. I wouldn’t even be talking about
this movie at all if I hadn’t noticed this one teeny tiny, itty bitty, teensy
weensy, microscopic little logo on the television commercial. I was watching on a 19” CRT from 6’ away, I
have no idea how my eyes caught it… I can’t seem to find a video of that exact commercial but the trailer I found on
youtube made the logo much more noticeable (OF COURSE!). Go back up and see if you can spot the logo I'm talking about in that video.
Did you spot
it? What? “Weinstein” you say?
Nooo! Sillies!
They’re the distributor. The other
logo. Go ahead. Go pause the video. I’ll wait…..
See it?
Yes that’s
the one. Rainmaker Entertainment. If the name doesn’t ring a bell then don’t
feel bad..., I’ll feel bad for you.
Rainmaker
Entertainment is the merger of Rainmaker Income Fund with Mainframe
Entertainment, a Canadian based animation studio.
“Why is this important to know?” you ask. I’ll tell you. Because
Mainframe was the studio that started it all. That sentence is not filled with loathing if you
couldn’t tell. It’s filled with sweet,
sweet nostalgic love. That’s right,
Mainframe Entertainment created nostalgia for many people, and they also
created the very first fully computer animated television show.
In 1994 ReBoot
first aired on the Saturday morning cartoon block on ABC. Ah!, I remember watching it when it was all
brand new. No one had ever seen anything
like it. Even adults took notice while
their kids were watching it. The series
ran for a couple years and then seemingly disappeared. Years later, Cartoon Network’s Toonami got
hold of it, and when I found out I flipped.
I couldn’t believe it had made a comeback and what’s more they had brand
new episodes I had never seen! It was
amazing and a following had been born. (Also,
Mainframe made Beast Wars.)
In 2001 the
series finished with a 4th “season” that was really just two movies
stuck together and provided no closure.
That’s right. It all ended on a
cliffhanger. Time passed, Toonami died,
and ReBoot became a memory. The Reboot
fans took to the internet. They had
words to say. Words were heard. In 2007, after Rainmaker merged with Mainframe
in the year prior, a trilogy of brand new ReBoot movies was announced for production
for a theatrical release. It seemed like the ReBoot Revival was on the way! More time passed
and a web comic called Code of Honor was made, but no news of the movies. Late 2008, a bit of news came but not exactly
good news. They decided to take a
different direction with the trilogy and slim it down to one movie dropping
their script writer in the process.
Supposedly the movie is still in the works as of 2011.
But “supposedly”
isn’t what I wanted to hear. The hope
that I had for ReBoot had been slipping away.
In 2012, Shout!Factory (a company that I friggin LOVE) released the
entire series on dvd. When I found out I
instantly got my boyfriend to preorder it for me. The Definitive Mainframe Edition. Complete series set. A staple show of my past was finally
accessible on disc. I HAD to have it. It was THAT important to preorder. …. I
can’t buy things online. I have a problem
called ‘not enough money‘ and I don’t have the ability to stop clicking the
buttons….
My hope was
rekindled… for a time.
Flash forward
to now. Back to Escape From Planet
Earth. Back to the realization of the
studio that made it. The studio
responsible for ReBoot….. made this. I
don’t know what to say anymore. I don’t
know what to feel. In this realization I
went to Rainmaker’s website to see what they’ve been doing.
A few video
games, Barbie movies, and animated shorts…..
and Escape From Planet Earth. Absolutely
no mention of ReBoot.
Upon further
inspection, Mainframe is credited as still being alive on IMDB.
The dates end
around 2008 which doesn’t surprise me being so close to the merger time, but
they are listed as doing special effects for Escape From Planet Earth. Also as a side note, they’re listed for
doing some post work on the two Scary Godmother specials…. I like those.
An alien CGI
movie with celebrities everywhere… They
even got Shatner in there… How did they
get all these celebrities in here for this?
How did a not-so-big studio pay for them? My gut says it was the budget for ReBoot…. I hope I’m wrong.
I don’t know
if I’m the only person that noticed this relation…. I feel like I need to see this movie just on
principal now. It released to its
opening weekend yesterday.
I’m going to
go watch me some ReBoot……. a Hexadecimal episode.
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