Cartoons tend to be common thing for children to get engulfed with, but it has shifted to a major art form that can be for adults, teenagers, and college students. Until recently, animated films have been treated like a step-child to more standard film especially by the academy and the public at large.
Several movies detail a beautiful narrative in a way that just can’t be told in more traditional means. The movies on this list however do not do that. They tend to be a blemish on a beautiful art form that many still are trying to get people to believe in its credibility.
10. Sleeping Beauty
Now this maybe a little in line with heresy, but this just isn’t a good animated film or really film in general. The only reason most of the Disney films of the 30s, 40s and 50s stay around is all due to base nostalgia. Even the critics of the time found it to be quite a disappointment, yet this continues to be a staple in every movie collection, especially for children. There are many Disney animated films that are much better and stimulate the mind more than this.
A story that boils down to boring jealousy and a love story that has absolutely no backing whatsoever aside from an odd political ramification for the kingdom. The two love interests are betrothed at the ages of 5 and 1 respectively, yet this is treated as a film that every little girl should watch? Nah, if you have a young daughter or really any child, have them watch Mulan. You and your child will be much happier.
Also if most people don’t even know the main characters’ real name, you made an uneventful, unremarkable character that needs retooling. Seriously, all of the people who can say the main character of Sleeping Beauty’s actual name without a Wikipedia search could probably hold a convention in a phone booth.
9. Shrek The Third
Personally this one is not a movie to finish. It was on TBS a couple times and every time the channel was changed. After the first two were such blockbuster hits, many people arguing that the sequel was better than the original which definitely has merit. This movie had none of the heart of the other two and led to several odd and off putting pop culture references throughout.
For the first half of the movie, it plays like an even lamer version of King Ralph, with Shrek acting as king of Far Far Away. The newer characters had a small amount of promise especially Prince Charming, but thanks to the boring story line and secondary hero that gave no one any reason to root for him.
This addition was selected as part of the Shrek canon rather than the fourth because this was the beginning of the decline. The film series could have stopped here, but instead they continued and made sequels and spin offs that not even the most die hard of Shrek fan should like.
8. Over The Hedge
This is another movie that can be seen once and the viewer would be fine. Many of the films in the higher parts of this list are painfully mediocre and no more is this apparent than with DreamWork’s “Over The Hedge”. While trying to cash in on the talking animal craze that came about in part due to Open Season and Barnyard, they decided to try fusing the two ideas into a stupid mess.
Maybe he had a summer home he needed to buy, or alimony was hitting him hard, but Bruce Willis decided to star in this film as a conniving raccoon. Shockingly this film actually had a pretty stellar cast, yet every joke just fell flat. The conflict was based on one thing, Willis’ character accidently causing a bears food to be destroyed, because apparently when bears hibernate, they just eat junk food and binge watch Netflix for a couple months.
But aside from the stupid plot, the fact no character really sees beyond his façade is quite comical but not in a good way. You want to root for these characters, but they just don’t give you a reason to. Now, of course this isn’t supposed to be some sort of nature documentary, but the fact that this bear doesn’t actually hibernate and it is the major plot point of the movie is necessary.
Typically bears eat a lot over an extended period of time before hibernating, yet this bear waits till the day before to get the food he is owed. The second point of this movie is an odd Lorax style lesson about conservation and humans destroying animals habitats.
While it is supposed to be funny that the animals aside from the raccoon know nothing about human culture, it’s honestly just another boring cliché that has been done in a million different cartoon shows and movies. The movie is just painfully sub par and it doesn’t really try to be anything more.
7. Shark Tale
‘Hey, Block Buster is all out of Finding Nemo DVDs? Let’s get Shark Tale instead.’ This was a conversation that was far too common back in 2004 but honestly why would you rent that instead. If you wanted an animated movie about fish and being underwater just rent The Little Mermaid, it looks better at least and wasn’t a sad cash grab.
This movie was the definition of what was stated before, a bland mediocre movie that tried to pass itself off as some “Nemo” alternative. While they tried to make some jokes that would appeal to parents that had to watch it they were far and few in between and painfully hackneyed.
Along with the “Urban” motif that for some strange reason just has to be shoehorned in, like it is in many of Will Smith’s movies. Because it is better to treat a demographic as if they are stupid and a hive mind of simplistic thought than individuals with different feelings and emotions. This movie just went on with nothing really satisfying overall.
6.Rugrats Go Wild
Now for any 1990’s/early 2000’s kid, “The Rugrats” were a major part of their childhoods, especially the movies both the first movie and the sequel. Both films felt like an interesting story that was an enjoyable experience and needed to be a film rather than just feeling like a long episode. And “The Wild Thornberry’s”, while not as popular as Rugrats, it did have a large enough popularity to spawn an enjoyable film and several seasons.
Now why anyone thought it was necessary to fuse the two into one movie is just baffling. The two universes have little to nothing to do with each other aside from being Nickelodeon shows. But this didn’t stop them from promoting this movie to the moon and back with gimmicks. The most memorable one was actually one of the few bright spots for this movie, which was a scratch and sniff card to smell with during the movie.
This was fun for kids ,but at the end of the day, it led to nothing but a disappointing mess. Eliza being able to speak to Spike was an interesting idea, especially due to them using some sort of contract magic with of all people Bruce Willis, who was in the Rugrats sequel as Spike earlier.
Using a pretty good actor to play the dog was interesting, but it just led to a cluster of the films run time focusing purely on the Rugrats. Making the film feel like a 3rd Rugrats movie with The Wild Thornberry’s wedged in.